Pan de Cádiz recipe of the dessert

The origin of Pan de Cádiz is uncertain.

According to legend, back in the 19th century during the Peninsular War, the French laid siege to the lands of Cádiz, exerting pressure and control over the population and preventing supplies and food from entering the city.

The wheat shortage led people to use one of the ingredients that was abundant at the time—almonds—to make bread. It is said that at the Customs Palace there was a large shipment of almonds destined for export, but they couldn’t ship it out. So the people of Cádiz decided to make a bread based on almonds, a kind of marzipan.

This legend is rather questionable, since it’s unlikely anyone would use a more expensive ingredient than wheat to bake bread.

Others attribute the origin of this dessert to the pastry chef Antonio Valls Garrido, a 19th-century resident of Cádiz. He created the bread in the shape of a chest so that sweet treasures—candied fruits, egg yolk paste, angel hair squash, or sweet potato cream—could be stored inside.

Today it is a widely enjoyed dessert throughout Spain during the Christmas season.

Fillings for Pan de Cádiz vary greatly, although the most traditional are candied egg yolk and candied sweet potato. The version I’m sharing has yolk marzipan and toasted almond marzipan.

Ingredients for the wrapping marzipan:

- 250 g raw ground Marcona almonds.

- 250 g powdered sugar.

- 1 egg white.

- 1 wafer.

Ingredients for the filling:

first filling (egg yolk)

- 150 g raw ground Marcona almonds.

- 150 g powdered sugar.

- as many egg yolks as needed to make a homogeneous dough.

second filling (toasted almond)

- 150 g toasted ground Marcona almonds.

- 150 g powdered sugar.

- 1/2 Egg white

Method:

1- To make the marzipan base, separate one egg white from its yolk and place it in a bowl.

2- Add raw ground Marcona almonds and sifted powdered sugar to prevent lumps. Mix well until you form a compact dough like the one you see in the photo; just mix, there’s no need to knead.

3- Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 2 hours while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

4- In another bowl, prepare the second filling by mixing the ground toasted Marcona almonds with the egg white until well combined.

5- For the first filling, in another bowl mix the raw ground Marcona almonds, the egg yolk, and sifted powdered sugar. Mix well until a dough forms.

6- Divide the marzipan dough into three portions.Weigh them so that one portion is 25% larger than the others; this will be the piece used to wrap the loaf.

7- Place a wafer on the base. On top of it, lay one of the three pieces of marzipan dough rolled out with a rolling pin to about 0.5 cm thickness. Spread the toasted almond filling over this marzipan layer.

8- With the other small piece of marzipan dough, roll out another 0.5 cm-thick sheet and place the yolk filling on top.

9- With the remaining piece of marzipan dough, roll out a large sheet that will serve to wrap the entire loaf.

10- Using a knife, make diagonal slashes and brush the entire surface with beaten egg.

This step helps give the pan de Cádiz a golden, glossy finish and ensures an even bake.

11- Bake in the oven at 200 °C (top heat only) for 10 minutes, or until the surface is nicely golden brown.

Receta en Español

You can also watch the recipe at my Youtube Channel:

Here you have my  favourite cooking tools: https://viaja-en-mi-cocina-english.blogspot.com/2023/05/shop.html

Bandera: De Ulaidh - Trabajo propio, CC BY-SA 4.0, Enlace

Kalon prama or Samali from Cyprus

                                                                                                                        Receta en Español   

kalon prama or Samali is a semolina cake very popular in Cyprus, kalon prama means 'good thing' , so you can imagine how delicious this dessert is. It is made with wheat semolina, almonds and syrup, very easy to do.

Ingredients:

- 250 grams yoghurt.

- 150 grams sugar.

- 1/2 ground orange rind.

- 2 eggs.

- 100 grams butter.

- 350 grams semolina.

- 1 teaspoon baking soda.

- 2 teaspoon baking soda.

- 1/2 teaspoon mastika or anise.

- Almonds.

Ingredients for the Syrup:

- 400 grams sugar.

- 400 ml water.

- 1 cinnamon stick.

- 2 tablespoon lemon juice.

Method:

1- Mix semolina with sugar, baking soda, baking powder, ground orange rind, butter, yoghurt , eggs and anise or mastika.

Mastika is a tree resin or the liqueur made from that resin. It tastes like anise so you can use anise in case you don't find Mastika.

I made the cake with the liqueur of Mastika:

I found it in Madrid at this store where you can find other Bulgarian products: http://www.tiendabulgaraenmadrid.es

Mini mercado 4M Ezequiel Solana 78, Madrid

Mix well:

2- Mix until you have an homogeneous dough.

3- Put in an ovenproof recipient, make squares along the dough with the help of a knife, put an almond on top of every square.

4- Preheat oven at 170 º C cook for 30 minutes at the same temperature.

5- While the cake is cooking , lets make the syrup. Put in a casserole sugar, water, cinnamon stick and lemon. Put on a low heat and cook until all the sugar has been disolved. Then let it cool.

6- Once the cake is cooked, redo the squares on the cake, and pour litle by litle all the syrup over the cake.

7- You can consume it hot or cold, as you want. It is delicious!

Bahraini Halwa

                                                                                                                       Receta en español

Halwa is an Arabic word that means sweet.

It is a dessert wide spreaded throughout the Middle East, Central Asia, India and even European countries like Greece, Bulgaria, Bosnia...,so far I've avoided to make this recipe because I thaught it would have a chewy texture.

In Bahrain Halwa is the staple dessert ,besides, they have their own halwa recipe. I should try this time making the halwa recipe.
It has been a nice surprise, it is not chewy, it is gelly like, very tasty and easy to eat.

Most Halwa are made from semolina flour , but Bahrain's recipe differs in that it is cooked with corn starch and canola oil.

Bahraini Halwa  is a variation of the halwa made in Oman, most Bahraini shops where this sweet  is sold ,are run by the Showaiter dynasty, so the recipe that I bring you today is called in Bahrain "Halwa Showaiter" but in other countries it is called  Bahraini Halwa.
It is usually taken with coffee and is widely consumed during the three days of Eid after Ramadan.

In the following link you can see how they make this sweet in Bahrain: Halwa Showaiter.

Ingredients (for a 24 cm diameter recipent):

•   800 grams sugar.
•   1200ml water.
•   4 teaspoos lemon juice.
•   60 grams butter.
•   2 tablespoons grounded cardamon.
•   1 tablespoon nutmeg.
•   10 saffron threads.
•   120 grams corn starch.
•   1 dose food coloring, this is optional, I didn't use it.
•   330 ml canola oil.
•   2 tablespoos Rosewater.
•   150 grams raw pistachios.
•   130 grams raw almonds.
•   100 grams nuts.
•   3 tablespoons raw sesame seeds.

Method:

1-   Infuse saffron in a cup with 240 ml of boiling water: I use the microwave to quickly boil water, put the saffron into the boiling water and let stand for one hour. 

2-   Toast almonds and pistachios in a saucepan without oil, we toast them during 5 minutes at low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon.

Before toasting:

Toasted:

Add nuts:

3-   Put the sugar in a large pot with 960 ml water, saffron infusion and lemon juice , boil over medium heat , when it reaches boiling point, reduce heat to low, stir and cover the pot, cook for 5 minutes.

4-   Add Little by Little canola oil and stir well,  cover and cook for 30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.

5-   While the previous mix is cooking, prepare Brown butter : Put the butter in a pot and heat over medium heat during 2-3 minutes, until butter is melted.

6- Still over low heat add cardamom and nutmeg into the pot with butter:

7- Add rose water , coloring liquid (optional) and 240 ml water. Add corn starch little by little, quickly stirring with a wooden spoon to avoid lumps.

8- After the 30 minutes cooking of point 4 are finished, add litle by little the mix obtained at point 6 into the pot of point number 4,stir in circles and cook during 15 minutes over low heat.
There will be big bubbles, be careful not to burn, we see that the mix thickens becoming a gelly, when it reaches that point , put aside and remove with a spoon the excess of oil that you can see at the surface.

9- Put again the pot over low heat and add the dried fruits (except the sesame), stir well and cook during 5 more minutes.

After that pour the mix in the recipent where you want to present the dessert.
Sprinkle over the Surface sesame seeds.

It can be eaten cold or warm, both ways it is delicious!.

My Comments to the Recipe

As I said before, I was astonished by its gelly texture . It may be too much sweet, because of this you should eat it by little portions, despite of that it is tasty with a special flavour given by the spices.

Where to buy the ingredients in Madrid

Sesame seeds can be found at herbalist's shops.
The rest of the ingredients you can see where to buy them following the links.

Rose water
Canola oil

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

Favourite cooking tools



Bahrain