Cabezotes from Cuba (soaked sponge cake)

Cabezotes are an old traditional Cuban dessert. Today, due to economic difficulties, they are hard to find, as they require expensive ingredients.

They were a dessert of Cuban high society, an adaptation of the soaked sponge cakes from Spain, with the addition of local ingredients such as rum.

The recipe needs a lot of egg yolks, if you do not know what to do with the egg whites, here you have another spectacular dessert : Pavlova

Ingredients:

- 12 egg yolks.

- 1 egg.

- 40 grams of Sugar.

- 1/2 vanilla beam.

- 18 grams of Flour.

- 60 grams of corn starch.

- a pinch of Salt.

For the Sirup:

- 1 cup of water.

- 1 cup of Sugar.

- 1 Cinnamon stick.

- Lemon zest.

- Vanilla.

- 3 star anises.

- 2 table spoons of rum.

Method:

1- Take 12 eggs, separate the yolks from the whites, keep the yolks in a bowl. Add one whole egg. The eggs must be at room temperature.

2- Whisk with the help of a hand mixer or stand mixer until the mixture is light in color and fluffy.

3- Gradually add the sugar while continuing beating, then add the vanilla.

4- Add the sifted flour, cornstarch, and salt to the bowl.

5- Fold the mixture gently.

6- Place paper liners in each cup of a metal muffin tin, fill each cup about 3/4 full, and bake at 190°C (375°F) for 15 minutes (top and bottom heat).

Take them out from the oven when they are golden on top.

7- Remove the paper liners and place all the cabezotes on a tray.

8- Make the syrup: pour the sugar, water, cinnamon, lemon zest, star anise, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of rum into a saucepan.

Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

Strain the syrup, and while still hot, pour it over the cabezotes—now they’re ready!

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

Cuba

Bandera:   Por Miguel Teurbe Tolón and Narciso López - Geometry and dimensions from Ley no 42 "de los Símbolos Nacionales".Its shape is rectangular, twice length than width, composed by five horizontal stripes having all the same width, three deep blue and two white, placed alternating. A red equilateral triangle, in one of its vertical extremes occupy all the height of the flag constituting its fixed edge. Such triangle bears in its center a five-pointed white star, within an imaginary circumference, whose diameter is a third of the flag´s height, having one of its points towards the free upper edge of the flag.— English translation of Law 42 from Symbols of the Cuban Nation, Dominio público, Enlace

Flowers from Extremadura

Flores or floretas are a very typical dessert in the Spanish regions of Castilla la Mancha and Extremadura.

It is a fried dough in the shape of a flower, done with the help of a special mold, they are usually sprinkled with sugar or bathed in honey, it depends on the area.

There is also a similar dessert in Colombia called "solteritas" and in Mexico they also make something similar.

In Extremadura, most of the recipes I have seen have been made with honey, this is the recipe I present today, you have to use a good honey and the flavor is spectacular, much better than with sugar.

Ingredients:

- 3 eggs.

- 220 g flour.

- 300 ml whole milk.

- a tablespoon of anisseed.

- Lemon zest.

- Honey.

Method:

1- Infuse the milk with lemon zest and aniseed. To do this, pour the milk into a saucepan along with the lemonzest and aniseed, put it over medium heat until it starts to boil, and then take away from the heat and wait for it to get cold.

2- Once the milk is cold, strain the milk.

3- To make the dough, put the eggs in a bowl along with the flour and then add the milk step by step and mix well each time you add the milk. You can also add water when the milk runs out and the dough still does not have a good consistency. just as you see in the photos. Keep in mind that the dough does not contain sugar.

4- We look for a frying pan or casserole where the flower mold fits well, fill the frying pan with oil. Heat the oil.

5- We put the mold in the dough being careful to leave part of the mold outside the dough. Then put the mold in the frying pan, you will immediately see that the dough can come off the mold easily and we let the flower brown a little more.Then you take the flower out of the oil and put it to dry on an absorvent paper, put the flowers upside down so that the oil does not remain in the folds of the flower.

6- We put the honey in a casserole and turn on the heat until the honey becomes liquid, then you turn off the heat and put half of each flower in the honey, put them face down in the honey and then put them in a dish face up so that the honey stays in the folds of the flower.

You can also watch the recipe at my Youtube Channel:

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

Favourite cooking tools

Receta en Español

Cáceres

Andorran cream

                                                                               Receta en Español

Andorran cream has some similarities to catalan cream, the difference is that andorran cream has some whisked egg whites on top of it.



Ingredients (for 4 people):

• 1 liter milk.
• 250 grams de sugar.
• 25 grams cornstarch.
• 7 eggs.
• lemon zest.
• Water and 100 grams sugar.
• Haslf a stick cinnamon.

Method:

1-  Separate yolks from egg whites, whisk egg whites with a little sugar until you get stiff peaks:

 

2-  Mix 750 ml milk with 125 grams sugar , put into a boil and add the whisked egg whites, stir until you see that they are cooked (about 10 minutes).

 3-  Take out the cooked whisked egg whites.

4- Add the lemon zest, cinnamon and the remaining sugar to the milk , put it on a boil, once it has reached boiling point, turn off the heat and let the milk get cold.

5-  Put some sifted corn starch in a bowl.

6-  Add the remaining milk into the bowl with the corn starch.

7-  Mix well.

8-  Add egg yolks.

9-  whisk until everything is homogenous.

10-  Take the milk you have cooked at step number 4, take out the lemon zest and cinnamon. Pour inside the mix (milk, corn starh and eggs) mix well.

11-  Put on a low heat and stir constantly until you get a consistency like custard, then turn the heat off and let it get cold.

12-  Present the cream with the whisked egg whites and some liquid caramel, on top of it.



Andorra

Goxua

                                                                               Receta en Español

Goxua means sweet, it is a typical basque dessert very popular in Vitoria, city where this dessert was invented in the seventies of the XX century.

Ingredients (4 people):

• 400 ml milk.
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch (maizena). 
• 5 tablespoon sugar.
• 1 piece lemon zest.
• 1 tablespoon butter.
• 2 eggs.
• 200 ml cream (35.1 % fat).
• 4 sponge fingers or chunks of  dried muffins.
• 1 tablespoon Water.
• 1 cup rhum.
• 1 vanilla pod or a teaspoon grinded vanilla.
• 1 cinnamon stick.

Method for custard:

1. Put in a casserole almost all milk together with cinnamon,vanilla and lemon zest. Cook on a medium heat.
2. Put cornstarch in a bowl and mix with the remaining milk, stir well until there are no lumps.
3. Now add 4 tablespoons sugar and eggs to the bowl, whisk.
4. Once the milk of the casserole has reached boiling point. Pour that milk into the bowl with the cornstarch,eggs and so.
5. Put the mix on a low heat, stir continuously with a wooden spoon , keep on cooking until the mix gets thick.
6. Add butter, stir well and let custard cool.

Syrup:

7. Take the remaining sugar and put it in another casserole with some water. Put it on low heat until sugar is well dissolved, at that point turn the heat to high until it reaches boiling point and then turn the heat off.
8. Add rhum to the casserole.

Method:

          9.    Whip cream, add sugar to taste.

10. Place the Whipped cream at the bottom of the cup where we are going to serve this dessert. (1 tablespoon and a half per cup).
    
11. Dip sponge fingers into the syrup, sponge fingers should be well hidratated with the syrup.
    
12. Put sponge fingers over the cream.
    
13. Put 2 spoonfull of custard over the sponge fingers.
14. Let it cool into the fridge. You can eat it warm or cool, as you prefer.
15. Make some caramel and pour 2 spoonsfull over the custard.

Caramel:

16. Put 100 grams sugar and 50 ml water in a saucepan, heat over medium heat. Stirr until sugar is well disolved. Once it happens, stop stirring to prevent it to crystallize.  
    The moment the caramel begins to turn light brown, turn the heat off. 
    The remaining heat in the saucepan will be enough to finish the cooking of the caramel. More details on how to do a perfect caramel:  Caramel

 Here you have the result:

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

Favourite cooking tools



Alava