Turrón Layer Cake

 

As you already know, I love Christmas baking, and with festivities always come spanish sweet specialties, in this case Turrón de Jijona, its a confection made with almonds and honey.  Well I still had some left over packages and decided to make a pound cake, I´ve done it before but this time it will include a Turrón butter icing which turned out great!

So here´s the recipe:

 

Ingredients for the cake:

1 can condensed milk

1/2 cup light brown sugar

160 grs. of "Turrón de Jijona"

1 cup of butter

3 eggs

2 cups of flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 cup of milk

 

Ingredients for the Icing:

90. grs butter

2 cups powder sugar

160 grs. turrón de Jijona

1/4 cup of evaporated milk

 

How to:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter and flour two round pans.

In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and set aside.

 In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, add condensed milk and add eggs one at a time, beating until well combined.

Add the crumbled turrón de Jijona.

Add the reserved flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the milk, beat until combined, divide the batter between the prepared pans.

Bake for about 1/2 hour and check every ten minutes till toothpick comes out clean.

Turn out cakes onto the rack to cool completery, cut them by half and wait till they are cooled down.

 

How to prepare the Icing:

just Beat and cream the butter, add the powder sugar, the evaporated milk and the turrón.

 

Now you can finish the cake by filling the layers with it.

 

Decoration

I just cut a heart with paper and sifted some powder sugar, you can really do what you like, this is a very rich cake and a simple decoration turns out great

 

 

i HOPE YOU LIKE IT!!!!

 

 

Crema Catalana Sticks

I found this delicious "Turrón de Crema Catalana" an Spanish Specialty which we love, I dicided to do something about the last two packages I had so here´s the recipe and how-to, I hope you like it, my family loved it, in fact they´re very nice and almost always like what I do ha ha ha, its a fun way to make something out of delicious treats and left overs we enjoy during Christmas Season

First you have to find this Turrón, there are other brands, you can always use "Turrón de yema" too

it looks like this when you open it

you cut it in sticks wide or narrow ,that depends on how you like them

Prepare a chocolate ganache, I did a small portion, 100grs of semi-sweet chocolate and 3 Tbsp of whole milk, you heat the milk and add the chocolate in pieces, you integrate both with a spoon and the ganache is ready! you can always add( butter, 1/2 a tsp. and rum 1Tbsp, instead of 2 Tbsp. of milk)

cover half the sticks with the chocolate ganache

I also had some leftover chocolates, so I cut them in small pieces, you can also use walnuts, almonds, pistachios or dried fruits

and you sprinkle some chocolate pieces over the chocolate ganache and arrange them over some lined paper so when the chocolate sets you can put them somewhere else

Polvorones Sevillanos

Our family tradition is to make Polvorones Sevillanos in Christmas, this tradition comes from Spain.

You can wrap them in all kind of Christmas decorated tissue, and maybe offer them in little boxes as presents.

Ingredients
2 kg all purpose flour
•1 kg good quality lard
•1 kg powdered sugar
• 4 Tbsp ground cinnamon
•1/2 cup powder sugar

How to do them
Preheat the oven to 300ºF.
Measure and pour flour out onto a cookie sheet. Place in oven and "toast" the flour. Occasionally move the flour around on the sheet, so that it toasts evenly. Leave in oven for about 30 minutes. Remove and set aside.
It has to be completely cool to start working.
Cream lard, sugar and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Add the flour .
Place a sheet of waxed paper on a cutting board or other flat work surface. Press the dough together to form a ball. Then press the dough onto the waxed paper. Carefully flatten it down to about 1/2 inch. Use a cookie cutter to cut out the cookies the traditional one is round
Use a small spatula to carefully move the cookies from the waxed paper to a cookie sheet for baking they are very delicate
Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet for 25-30 minutes at 300ºF.
Remove cookie sheet from oven and allow cookies to cool completely before removing them.
Sprinkle with powder sugar when ready to serve.
Makes approximately 150 polvorones
ready to wrap
wrap them with tissue paper