Carbayones

                                                                               Receta en Español

'Carbayón' is a typical dessert from Oviedo (Spain). The first time this dessert was elaborated , it was at the I International fair of Gijón in 1924.

José Gutiérrez cooked this cake to represent Oviedo at the Fair.  

This cakes are named after the way Oviedo's inhabitants are known: 'carbayones'. It refers to an old, famous and symbolic oak (carbayu in Asturias) to the city, it standed close to the Campoamor theatre.

It is a tasty cake made of yolk and almonds over a layer of pastry dough, topped  with glazed sugar. 

Ingredients:

•   1 sheet of frozen puff pastry.
•   125 grams of grinded almonds.
•   1 egg.
•   4 egg yolks.
•   125 grams of sugar for the filling.
•   125 grams of sugar for the sugar glaze.
•   1 lemon zest.
•   1 splash of sweet wine or brandy.

Method:

1-   It is healthier to make the dough by your own, in case you don't have time (as in my case) you can use frozen puff pastry.

Let the pastry thaw at room temperature.
Sprinkle a little flour over a plane surface and roll the pastry out.

Cut the pastry the same size as the molds, you can see in the next picture how I managed to cut the pastry.
I used paper molds, it is better to use metallic ones. If you use paper molds the weight of the filling flattens the 'Carbayones' , they should be like rectangular cupcakes.

Put a layer of pastry in each mold:

2-   Now we prepare the filling; put in a bowl the grinded almonds, one egg, 2 egg yolks, 125 grams of sugar, a splash of sweet wine or brandy and zest from half of the outter skin of a lemon.

Mix well with a whisk until you get a dough.

3-   Fill the molds with the mix until the edges , in case you use paper molds don't fill to the edge because it could spill while cooking.

Preheat oven at 180 ºC , put 'Carbayones' into the oven at the same temperature for 20 minutes or until they are brown, take them out of the oven and let them cool.

4-   While 'Carbayones' are in the oven we can prepare the yolk glazing.

First we make a syrup, put 50 grams of sugar and 75 ml water in a saucepan. Boil for some minutes until the sugar dissolves and then put aside and let it cool.

5-   Whisk 2 egg yolks in another saucepan, Once the syrup is cold pour it little by little over the egg yolks, stir constantly . Add the zest from half of the outter skin of a lemon and continue stirring. 

Put the pan at low heat , continue stirring until the mix thickens.

 6-   Now we spread the yolk glazing over the surface of the 'Carbayones'.To do it, we 'paint them' with the help of a brush, make the yolk glazing the more thick you can.

Let 'Carbayones' cool before adding the sugar glaze.

7-   Sugar glazing is the more delicate part of this dessert; Put in a saucepan  75 grams of sugar and 50 ml water.

Put the saucepan at low heat , stir constantly until you see that the mix in getting a slightly white colour.

Now you must act fast, it is time to 'paint Carbayones' with the brush.

The mix gets solid very fast, that`s way you should paint fast.

In case the mix becomes solid, you can add a little water and start the process again.

Once the sugar glazing is solid you can start eating your 'Carbayones'. I made 8 big carballones, depending on the mold you may obtain more cakes with the same measures of ingredients.

My comments to the Recipe

This is not difficult to do, but it takes time. It  has a marvellous taste, the mix of almonds, eggs and lemon zest make them exquisite.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Asturias