SPANISH CHRISTMAS COOKIES WITH A HINT OF MOORISH SPAIN

Many present-day sweets and pastries have names, resembling alfajores and almojábanas*, that come from Arabic. Even azúcar, sugar, comes from the Arabic sukkar. Although their confection may need modified within the centuries since Arabic was the lingua franca, many Spanish sweets nonetheless carry the traces of their origins. 

Following the Reconquest and the institution of the Inquisition, Islamic and Sephardic tradition and foodways had been suppressed as a option to consolidate the ability of the Catholic monarchs of the newly unified Spanish kingdom. But most of the confections of the time managed to outlive.

Improbably, it was nuns in cloistered convents who stored alive the Moorish custom of candy making. Conversos, Jews (and a few Muslims too), who transformed to Catholicism relatively than flee the nation, turned Christians, typically sending their daughters to take vows as nuns. Many took with them to the convents their cherished recipes for delectable pastries and confections–marzipan and almond nougat, ethereal fried pastry puffs, fig sweetmeats, jam-filled tarts. Made by nuns below the signal of the Cross, Moorish sweets lived on.

*Alfajores, Honey-Almond Logs, Almojábanas, Honey Buns 

Crumbly Olive Oil Cookies

Mantecados de Aceite

(Recipe from Flavors of al-Andalus)

The city of Estepa within the province of Sevilla is famend for its mantecados, cinnamon-lard cookies (and the same polvorones), that are stated to have originated within the Santa Clara convent within the sixteenth century. Simply because the city’s church of Santa María is constructed on the foundations of the mosque that got here earlier than (Estepa was Muslim from 711 to 1241), so the recipe for these cookies, beloved for the Christmas season, has its roots in Moorish instances. In fact, the Moorish model wasn’t made with lard!

Olive oil replaces lard!

The Moorish recipe seems in an nameless Andalusí cookbook from the thirteenth century. It requires toasted wheat flour, honey, and oil kneaded collectively and spiced with black pepper and candy spices. Current-day mantecados are made with candy cinnamon and typically cloves, however no pepper; sugar as an alternative of honey, and lard as an alternative of olive oil. (Though, on this day of health-consciousness, the model with olive oil is widespread once more.) The crumbly, melt-in-the-mouth cookies migrated with Sephardic Jews. Made with oil, butter, or margarine, they’re identified in lots of elements of the world as biscochos, polvorones, pecan puffs, and Mexican wedding ceremony cookies. 

This recipe makes a young cookie that crumbles simply, so deal with rigorously. As a result of they’re crumbly, mantecados are often individually wrapped in tissue paper. The cookies preserve effectively if saved in an air-tight container.

Crumbly mantecados.

Use your greatest additional virgin olive oil for these cookies. Toasting the flour and almonds eliminates extra moisture and provides a refined toasted taste. Take care to not allow them to brown—they need to barely colour. You’ll not must flour the work floor as a result of the oil retains the dough from sticking. However you will want an off-set spatula or huge knife to carry the rounds of dough as soon as they’re lower. 

Makes 25 (1 ¾-inch) cookies 

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup floor almonds

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Pinch of salt

¾ cup additional virgin olive oil

1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted, plus further for sprinkling on completed cookies

½ teaspoon grated lemon peel

1 tablespoon sesame seed

Preheat oven to 350º. 

Unfold the flour on a rimmed baking sheet and the almonds in a shallow oven pan. Toast them within the oven, stirring each 5 minutes, till flour and almonds are flippantly coloured. The almonds will begin to colour in about 5 minutes. Take away them. The flour will likely be pale gold in about quarter-hour. Take away the flour and switch off the oven.

Cool the flour and almonds fully. Sift the flour with cinnamon and salt.

Place the oil, sugar, and lemon peel in a mixing bowl and beat them till very easy. Step by step stir within the toasted flour, then the almonds.

Flip the dough out onto a board or marble work floor. Mix the dough by kneading it with a number of squeezes. Collect it collectively in a ball and chill it for not less than 1 hour or as much as 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

Divide the dough in half. Hold one half refrigerated. Roll or pat the opposite half out on an unfloured floor to a thickness of ¾ inch. Sprinkle among the sesame seeds on prime of the dough. With the rolling pin, press them into the floor of the dough.

Use a 1 ¾ -inch cookie cutter to chop rounds of the dough. Switch them to the baking sheet. (Use a knife or offset spatula to carry them from the board.) Collect remaining dough, roll out and lower once more.

Repeat rolling and reducing with the remaining half of dough. Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with sesame and press it flippantly into the dough.

Bake the cookies till they’re flippantly golden, about 20 minutes. Don’t allow them to brown. Slide the cookies on baking parchment onto a rack. Allow them to cool fully. 

As soon as the cookies are cool, wrap every cookie individually in a 7-inch sq. of tissue paper, twisting the ends to surround.

Mantecados made with olive oil as an alternative of lard, nougat, and marzipan are all good for the Jewish vacation of Hanukkah.

Listed below are extra cookies and desserts from FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS which can be cherished for Christmas and which can be additionally appropriate for Hanukkah (which begins tomorrow, December 14, at sunset). A lot of the recipes within the e-book have headnotes, just like the mantecados above, telling their backstory in Moorish Spain. 

Cookies and Desserts

Almond Cookies (Almendrados). Almonds are an emblematic ingredient of sweets and pastries from Moorish Spain. These are crisp-chewy, very simple to make. 

Pumpkin-Almond Pudding (Arnadí). This dessert widespread within the Valencia area, is claimed to be of Arab or Sephardic origin. In that period it could not have been confected of pumpkin, because the squashes had been unknown on the time, however was in all probability made with edible gourds or eggplant. Serve this pudding as a substitute for pumpkin pie! 

Honey-Almond Logs (Alfajores). This honeyed candy is expounded to turrón, almond nougat sweet. For these, floor toasted almonds and breadcrumbs are blended with spices and certain with a honey-sugar syrup, then rolled into logs. Delectable. They might usually be served with tiny copitas of candy wine or anise liqueur, however they’re additionally good with a cup of tea or a glass of milk.

This is the perfect present for the cooks in your life–FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS, The Culinary Legacy of Spain. This can be a recent angle on the normal cooking of Spain, with 120 recipes that may hint their roots to Moorish Spain. See under for the place to order. 

This cookbook explores the fascinating story of the deep and lasting influences that Islamic tradition has left on fashionable Spanish cooking. 

Creator and Spanish cooking knowledgeable Janet Mendel tells the story of the Moorish affect on Spanish cooking by 120 recipes and images for modern-day dishes, from salads and greens to fish, poultry and meat to sweets and pastries, that hint their heritage to meals served in medieval instances. Dishes from this period embrace unique spices resembling saffron, the usage of fruits and almonds with savory dishes, and honeyed sweets and pastries. The flavors of al-Andalus reside on in fashionable Spanish cooking and are what makes Spain’s delicacies distinctive from the remainder of Europe. (Hippocrene Books)    

 Order on IndiePubs (USA) 

Use PROMO CODE HIPPOCRENE40 for 40% off on all Hippocrene titles at IndiePubs on-line bookstore.

(Should you order on Amazon, please give my e-book a evaluation!)

***