One of the many many sweets and snacks that Filipinos inherited (and made a better version of) from the Spanish is polvorones. The Spanish polvorones are baked after shaping by hand, they're not quite cookies nor shortbread, somewhere in between. The candy-like Filipino polvoron is never baked but the flour is also toasted before mixing with sugar, powdered milk and butter, then shaped using either a round or oval mold that are made in the Philippines and nowhere else (they can be purchased from Filipino groceries or eBay). I grew up eating plain polvorones and sometimes the ones with crushed peanuts or toasted sesame seeds but recently various flavors and add-ins have been popping up in the Filipino grocery: the ubiquitous buco-pandan, ube, langka, crispy rice or pinipig, crushed oreo cookies, and the latest, graham crackers. Well, why not join the crowd and here is my contribution: raw cacao nibs. They are so addicting! What's not to love: sugar, butter, milk, and raw crunchy bitter chocolate. Mmmmmm.
Peruvian raw organic cacao nibs
The package says they are nutritious and I think these are highly recommended by vegans who advocate eating raw food. I bought the cacao nibs to add to candies, baked goods, and to eat with cereals but I also love munching on them like peanuts. They are a teeny bit bitter, they are pure chocolate after all, but I love extremely dark chocolate anyway. Cacao nibs, a guilt-free and healthy super yummy snack.
Polvorones
4 cups flour
3/4 cup powdered milk
1½ cups super-fine sugar
1 cup very soft butter
- Toast flour in a skillet or in a 300°F oven for about 10 minutes until light brown.
- Into a bowl, sift toasted flour, milk, and sugar. Add the butter and mix thoroughly.
- Fill mold and press lightly, unmold onto individual pieces of rectangular or square (depending on the mold) multi-colored or white tissue paper, twist ends of paper.
- Tip: To prevent crumbling, refrigerate unwrapped molded polvoron for a few minutes or until set.
" with cacao nibs, graham crackers, buco-pandan, and toasted sesame seeds
8 comments:
Is there something you can't cook? It seems you know everything.
you know when i was a kid to help my parents earn a living I used to sell pulboron in the street of sampaloc , shouting P-U-L-B-U-R-O-N, a really tiring job!!..i never knew how to make them it was our neighbor supplying me..imagine im selling them but i dont know how they taste.one day she made me taste one (the one i didnt succeed in selling) and it tasted soo heavenly...thanks for this post it zap me back in time. by the way you dont happen to have a recipe for yema?
sidney, I have always been intimidated by French cuisine. I have never made any French entree or dessert, except for brioche which is bread so it doesn't count.:)
dhanggit, now it's your turn to make me reminisce. I peddled bananacues once with my older sister to help out a neighbor, (my Ninang). We were sort of lured just like the kids whitewashing the fence in TOM SAWYER. We took turns shouting banana and Q? with a questioning lilt. My father went ballistic when he heard about it because I was just 6 and my sister 8 years old at the time.:D
I made yema once, I'll look for the recipe and will let you know.
I love polveron with pinipig, but your addition with the cacao nibs looks great! My grandmother makes polveron from time to time and then she wraps them in paper.
I used to make polvoron when I was small and its so easy but I was not creative then so its usually just flour and sugar toasted together. My siblings and I couldnt wait to make them into molds so we would just eat it in its powdery form - still tastes good =)
marvin, pinipig is a classic add-on and I love it. I'm also loving the graham crackers and the raw cacao. I used white tissues and cellophane which I find too thick. I think clear and colored Saran is better for wrapping polvoron.
raissa, I did that too as a child. I put some in a cup and ate the sweet powder with a teaspoon while watching my mother wrap them.:)
wow what a coincidence you had your adventures too with bananacues..good thing i didnt had to peddle them or else i ended up eating them..coz they are my fave :-)
dhanggit, we got a skewer each of bananacue as payment, heheh, and they were yummy!:D
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