Quince Pastafrola

This quince pie is one of my favorites. It´s quite informal and usually served for tea, not as a dessert. My father taught me this recipe on my last trip to my home country, Argentina.  You can replace the quince with sweet potato jam, dulce de leche or any other jam that goes well with lemon flavored dough.


INGREDIENTS: For a 30cm cake pan

A- Patience
B- 500-600 grams of quince sweet
C- 120 grams of melted butter
D- 1 cup of regular sugar
E- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
F- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
G- Peel from one lemon
H- 1 egg
I- 1 egg yolk
J- 360 grams of all purpose flour
K- 1 pinch of salt

PROCEDURE:

FIRST STEP: Cut the sweet quince in cubes and place them on a bowl. We will later heat it in the microwave.

SECOND STEP: Melt butter in another bowl.

THIRD STEP: Add the sugar to the melted butter and stir with a fork until well integrated.

FOURTH STEP: Add the vanilla extract, baking powder and stir again.

FIFTH STEP: While stirring energetically add the lemon peel, egg and egg yolk.

SIXTH STEP: Finally, to conclude with the dough recipe, add the flour while stirring. Do not add the flour all at once. Eventually, you will have to use your hands.

SEVENTH STEP: Split the dough in two different sizes: one slightly bigger than the other one.
The bigger dough will be used for the base.

EIGHTH STEP: Place the bigger dough on the pan´s base and press it in order to cover the entire base.

NINTH STEP: Pour half a cup of water to the bowl with the quince and heat it until it boils in the microwave.

TENTH STEP: With a fork, press the quince until you obtain a  creamy texture.

ELEVENTH STEP: Pour the quince on top of the raw base dough and spread it to the borders, leaving a clean 1-1.5cm gap.

TWELFTH STEP: With the remaining doug make rounded strips and place them one 2.5-3cm away from the other on straight lines. When you covered the pan with the lines, place the other ones 90 degrees from the previous ones. Make sure to make a long strip to place on the circumference and press it with the fingers. Sounds tough but it´s not! Check pictures below.

THIRTEENTH STEP:  Bake on a preheated oven, medium temperature until the upper strips are golden color.

And there you have it, a delicious quince pastafrola!

Greek Curambiedes

I tried to get this recipe straight for a while. My Greek Yia yiá gave me the recipe before moving to New York, but no matter how many times I tried, the cookies turned out to be delicious but the consistency and shape wasn´t what I expect of Curambiedes. But then, of course, what she meant when  she said ´coffee plate size´ was an ultra-mini coffee plate (among other differences). So coming back to my home country, Argentina, I decided to have a grandmother-granddaughter day, spending the afternoon learning how to make the worldwide famous curambiedes. Satisfaction guaranteed or we´ll call the NASA for you, because if you don´t like curambiedes you are, for sure,... extraterrestrial!!!!! Hahahaha!

This recipe is dedicated to my friend Cheps and her family.


INGREDIENTS
A- Patience
B- 200 grams of salted butter
C- 340-350 grams of all-purpose flour
D- 1 egg
E- 50 grams of sugar
F- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
G- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
H- Confectioners sugar
I- Optional: Nuts or almonds

PROCEDURE:

FIRST STEP: Cut the butter in thin loafs and place them in the bowl where you´ll beat all the ingredients. The butter must be really tender, so either we wait for it to melt a little bit or we heat it using the bain-marie method. Warning: don´t melt the butter thoroughly, just soften it so it is easy to beat.

SECOND STEP: Beat the butter until it has whiten and start adding the regular sugar.

THIRD STEP: Take the beater away for this step and make sure your hands are clean. Mix the already mixed ingredients a little bit more with your fingers. It sounds crazy, yes, but that´s the way my Yia yiá taught me to do it.

FOURTH STEP: Add the egg yolk, but leave a little bit of the egg white too. 

FIFTH STEP: Add the vanilla extract and beat once again (with the beater). 

SIXTH STEP: Stiff the flour and baking powder into the mixture and knead as if you were scratching the mixture, like when you make a hole in the sand with your hands. Do not add the flour all at once.

SEVENTH STEP: Once the flour has been thoroughly integrated you can start giving shape to the cookies. TIP: Place them in a teflon baking pan and put that pan over a clean one so the cookies don´t get burned. 

Preheat oven to middle temperature.

To shape the cookies, grab a small piece of dough and press it with your hand, between your palm and your fingers. You can cut off the dough exceeding your hand so that all the cookies have the same size. You will see the shape is not uniform because of the gaps between finger and finger: roll the dough slightly with the help of your other hand, curve it a little bit and place it on the cookie pan.

You can make them round if you want and even place a nut or an almond inside of the cookie.

EIGHTH STEP: Bake the cookies for about 20 minutes. You´ll realize that they are ready because they look gold color on the bottom and they are dry on the top.

NINTH STEP: Let them cool, but not entirely, just so that you can touch them without burning your fingers. 

TENTH STEP: In a small dish place the confectioners sugar and sprinkle the cookie. You can do this with a sifter as well.

ELEVENTH STEP: Place the cookies on a serving plate or in a tupper, they last a month in a fresh and dry place, though I bet they won´t last a month…they are so delicious!

Now tell us, are you extraterrestrial?