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

Quidim

                                                                               Receta en Español

Quindim is a dessert very popular in northeast Brazil.
Here we can notice the influence of portuguese gastronomy.
This dessert comes from sweets made at portuguese convents.
There was one dessert called 'brisa do lis' made with sugar,yolks and grinded almond. Quindim is similar to this dessert using coconut instead of almond.

Ingredients (8 little quidim):

-  8 yolks.
-  30 grams butter.
-  200 grams sugar.
-  120 grams ground coconut.
-  120 ml coconut milk.

Method:

1- If you are using natural ground coconut, it is not necessary to do this step. In case you are using dried ground coconut , hydrate it adding some coconut milk, mix well and let stand for some minutes.

 2- Add sugar, mix until there is no lump. You can use a blender.

3- Melt butter , add it to the bowl of step 2.

4- Separate yolks from whites,  add them to the bowl passing them through a siver.
Then mix well.

5- Let stand for at least 20 minutes. Consistency must be like jelly.

6- Spread cooking moulds with some butter, sprinkle some sugar over the butter.

7- Field the cooking moulds with the mixture, put them in an ovenproof recipient filled with water until it reaches half of the recipient, this way you can cook them in a bain-marie. 

8- Preheat oven at 180 ºC, then cook in oven at the same temperature for 45 minutes until they are slightly golden.

9- Once they are cold, remove from their molds with the help of a knife and put them upside down on a dish.

10 - There they are :-)

You can also see the VideoRecipe here:

                                              https://youtu.be/tIzNzm-dC2I 


My comments to the Recipe

I have seen some recipes where they put more quantity of sugar, but I think that the perfect quantity is the one I used, it provides a soft and tasty flavour. The colour of this dessert is also beautiful!.

Brasil

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.

Alborea almonds soup

                                                                               Receta en Español

I found the following recipe in the book from Carmina Useros 'Mil recetas de la cocina de Albacete y su provincia' , it is a typical soup from the village called Alborea from Castilla , Spain. A Castilian soup where almonds are added.

Ingredients:

• 3 garlic clove.
• 3 yolks.
• 120 grams of bread.
• 70 grams of peeled and chopped almonds.

Method:

1-  Cut the bread into thin slices 1 cm thick.

2-  Pour some oil in a pan , fry the bread slices. Keep them aside.

3-  Take a big pot , pour oil and sautée garlic cloves.

4-  Add 1 liter and a half of water, add salt. Put on a low fire until it gets boiling point.

5-  Brake the bread slices into little chunks.

6-  Add bread and chopped almonds to the pot. Turn off the fire.

7-  A little time before serving the soup add yolks to thick the soup, do it as it is told in the following steps:

8-  Put yolks, who are at room temperature, into a cup . Stir well.

9- Pour two spoons full of some liquid from the pot into the cup , stir well. Add more spoons little by little and stir well after each spoon. This way yolks will heat very slowly.

10- Once yolks are at the same temperature as the rest of the soup , pour them in the pot and stir one more time.



Albacete