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

Macadamia nuts pie (Marshall islands)

                                                                               Receta en Español

Macadamia nuts are original from Australia nevertheless they are these days produced in Hawaii,California, Cuba , Costa Rica, Brasil, Kenya, Indonesia, Taiwán and  East Africa.

They are not produced in Marshall islands , however Macadamia nuts pie has become very famous in these islands, maybe because of the influence of the U.S.A.

It has a base of short pastry and it is normally accompanied by whipped cream.

Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry:

• 250 grams wheat flour.
• 5 grams salt.  
• 125 grams soft butter.
• 1 egg.
• 2 table spoons cold water.

Ingredients for the filling:

• 65 grams grated coconut.
• 220 grams macadamia nuts cut in half.
• 3 eggs.
• 180 grams brown sugar.
• 200 ml honey.
• 20 grams unsalted butter.
• 2 table spoons coconut milk.

Ingredients for the cream:

• 500 ml de cream at least 35.1% fat.
• 3 table spoons cold coconut milk. 
• 130 grams cold white sugar. 

How to prepare Short pastry:

1- Sieve flour and put it in a bowl.

2- Put  the flour in a mountain shape, make a hole in the middle , put inside sugar, salt, egg and cut butter as you see in the picture: 

3- Add water step by step and mix all the ingredients with the help of your hands until you have a dough, at this moment you should not knead the dough any more.

4- Make a ball with the dough and wrap it in cling film. Let it cool in the fridge for 1 hour.

5- Sprinkle some flour on a surface, stretch the dough with a rolling pin until you reach the shape of the baking mold as you see in the picture:



6- Roll the dough as you see in the picture, this way you can easily take it and put it on the baking mold:



7-  Prick the dough with a fork , this is to prevent the dough to swelling up once it is in the oven:



8-  Put some grated coconut over all the surface of the short pastry.

How to make the filling:

9-  Pour some honey, soft butter, coconut milk, sugar, eggs and mix well.

10-  Add macadamia nuts and stir.

11-  Pour the mixture over the short pastry.

12- Preheat oven at 190 º Celsius and cook 15 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 160 ºCelsius and cook for 25 or 35 minutes until it looks like this:

14- Let it cool.

 How to prepare the cream:

15- Follow the steps described in this article: Whipped cream with a difference , before whipping the cream add 3 tablespoons of coconut milk. It takes a little longer but the final taste is amazing.

16- Serve accompanied by the cream:

My Comments to the Recipe:

You should try this pie, the mixture of honey and sugar is not so sweet as you may think, the butter provides a wonderful taste and the coconut milk gives a tropical and soft taste.
If you let the pie stand for a while it gets better.

 

Marshall Islands