Turrón from Jijona

It is said that 'Turrón' was originated at the arabian peninsula, in the XI century a book called 'De medicinis et cibis semplicibus' was published, inside there is a recipe of a sweet called 'turun'. Later on, the arabs brought that recipe to Spain where it was changed a little.

The original recipe was more simple than today, it was a mixture of toasted almonds and cooked honey. Instead of almonds, it was possible to see the turrón made of hazelnuts, pinions or walnuts.

In the XV century it is possible to identify different types of turrón depending of the geographical zone of Spain. Hazelnut turrón was made at the north Mediterranean region, At the south plateau and Andalucía was the 'alajú' a turrón made of pinions, walnuts and almonds. In Alicante region was typical the turrón made of almonds.

The end of october is the end of the agricultural cycle , after that, farmers start the elaboration of the turrón to be ready to be sold at Christmas.

It is said that the turrón was known at the Royal Court thanks to Philip the Second. Also, the authorities from Alicante spent a lot of money to give turrón to famous people from Madrid and Valencia as a present , soon it became part of the salary at Christmas time.

In the XVII century the turrón started to be exported to Europe , at that time, the egg whites were added to the original recipe, this way, the turrón did not leak honey and its colour was clearer.

In the XVIII century , the honey started to be scarce, so farmers decided to add sugar to the original recipe, leaving the recipe as it is known today.

The first time when Turrón from Jijona was elaborated was in the XIX century, it is the result of grinding turrón from Alicante, it was specially made for children and elder people.

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

• 2 rectangular tupperwares.
• 300 grams of marcona almond.
• 100 grams floral honey.
• 100 grams sugar.
• 1 egg white.
• Ground lemon rind.
• a teaspoon of cinnamon.

 

Method:

 

1-  Take a frying pan, toast without oil almond flour or whole almonds, that you are going to grind later.

 

 

2-  You can add some toast almond pieces to the mixture.

3-  Take a casserole, add the sugar and honey, put on a low heat , and stir until all the sugar is disolved , then you add cinnamon and lemon rind.

 

 

4-  Whisk the egg's whites until they go stiff.

 

 

5-  Put the heat off , Add the whites to the mixture and stir with encircle movements. .

6-  Put on a low fire , add the ground almonds , stir well during 2 minutes and let cool.

 

 

7-  Put some parchment paper over one tupper. Knead the mixture with the hands, then put it in the tupper. Smash the mixture , this way the almonds  will release its oil

 

 

8-  Cover the turrón with parchment paper, place other tupper over it, afterwards place some weight in the tupper, as you can see at the pictures:

 

 

 

 9-  Let stand for 3 or 4 days at room temperature.

Alicante

«Alicante (provincia)» de Ulaidh & HansenBCN - Trabajo propio. Disponible bajo la licencia GFDL vía Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alicante_(provincia).svg#mediaviewer/File:Alicante_(provincia).svg



 

Yolks from Ávila

                                                                                Receta en Español

This dessert is also called Santa Teresa yolks, The origin of this dessert is uncertain. 

Some people claim that it is an arabian dessert. The nuns at the nuneries started doing them.

Due to the catholic tradition at Ávila, these yolks turned into the most famous treat of the city, during the XIX century it also started to be produced at cake shops.

It is well known that the first cake shop that produced this dessert was 'Flor de Castilla' ,they even registered the trademark 'Yemas de Santa Teresa' , due to the success other cake shop started to produce them after the name of 'Yemas de Ávila', it is 'Yolks from Ávila'.

It is a delicious dessert more easy than what you expected.

Ingredients (32 - 35 yolks):

-  100 ml water.
-  200 grams white sugar.
-  12 yolks.
-  lemon rind.
-  1 cinnamon stick.
-  Some powdered sugar.

Method:

1- To do the syrup,pour some water in a casserole, add some sugar, lemon rind and cinnamon stick.

Stir well and cook at medium heat, stir from time to time.

The syrup will be at the good state when you take it out from the casserole with the help of a spoon and it falls down like a trickle.

 2- At this point you should turn off the heat , cover the casserole with a lid and let it cool for 20 minutes, keep the lemon rind and cinnamon inside to infuse.

 3- Separate yolks from whites, beat the yolks.

4- Get rid of the lemon rind and cinnamon of the syrup. Mix yolks with the syrup step by step , stirring constantly.

5- After well mixed, put the casserole at low heat, keep on stirring . Little by little the mixture will thicken. The consistency will be optimal when the yolks can be easily separated from the casserole edges.

6- Let get cool into the fridge for about 3 hours.

7- Now is time to build the dessert.
You can buy the powdered sugar, or you can grind normal sugar with the help of a grinder.

8- Sprinkle some powdered sugar over a table and over your hands, it is to prevent the dough from sticking into your hands.

You do not need to knead the dough, take a little quantity of the dough , make a little ball with the help of your hands, then bath the ball into some powdered sugar.

9- There you have!, to present the yolks you can use some little cupcakes moulds.

My comments to the recipe

The taste of the yolks is amazing!, they are even better the following day. You can keep them for several days into the fridge.

It is more easy to do than what I expected.

After the dessert you will have a lot of egg whites, you can take them to prepare other dessert like:

Pavlova
Soplillos de la Alpujarra

You can see the elaboration at my Youtube channel:

Ávila

Custard cream

                                                                               Receta en Español

Custard cream is a basic cream for fillings used for many desserts.

You can modify the quantity of each ingredient as long as you keep the proportion between the ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 liter whole milk.
• 1/2 cinnamon stick or vanilla rod.
• 125 grams white sugar.
• 40 grams cornstarch.
• 4 egg yolks.
• 1 lemon rind.

Method:

1-  Put 450 ml of milk in a casserole together with the cinnamon stick and lemon rind, Put on a medium heat.

2-  Once it reaches boiling point , turn off the heat and let cool.

3-  Put sugar in a bowl , add sifted flour.

4-  Mix well, add 50 ml of milk.

5-  Mix well.

6-  Separate yolks from whites ,beat yolks.

7-  Add the yolks to the mixture of the step 5.

8-  Strain the cooked milk (step 2) to get rid of cinnamon stick and lemon rind. Pour a little of this milk into the bowl with the mixture with the rest of ingredients (step 7) , mix well.

9-  Once the mixture is homogeneous , pour the rest of the milk.

10-  Put the casserole on a low heat ,stir continuously until it starts to thicken, once it has the desired consistency turn off the fire and let it cool.

11-  You can keep it in the refrigerator protected by a plastic film.