Spanish desserts are incredibly diverse but there are several that every good Spanish homemaker simply loves to make for her family. Here are some of them:
Melindres Cookies
Ingredients: 12 egg yolks, 3 tbsp sugar, rind of 1 lemon, 1 tsp cinnamon, 2/5 cup butter, 1 tbsp mastika, 4/5 cup flour, 4 tbsp powdered sugar.
Preparation: Beat the egg yolks with the sugar, lemon rind and cinnamon until you get a relatively thick mixture. To it add the melted butter, mastika and flour and stir everything until you get a dough. Put it in a pastry bag and then form 4″ long by 1" wide strips onto a baking dish laid out with baking paper. Bake in a preheated 360°F (180°C) oven about 10 min.
Valencia Cream
Ingredients: 6 eggs, 1 cup powdered sugar, the juice of 6 oranges and 1 lemon, 8 sheets of gelatin.
Preparation: Please note that this cream needs to sit for 1 day, so be sure to make it 1 day before you actually consume it.
Separate the egg whites. Beat the egg yolks until whitened with the powdered sugar. Add the juice of the fruits (squeezed out ahead of time) and soaked in water gelatin.
Mix everything well with a mixer until thickened and then add the gradually beaten to foam egg whites to the mixture. Stir everything slightly with a spoon and pour it into a tray with water. Let it gel at least 12 hours.
Santiago Almond Cake
Ingredients: 8 eggs, 2/5 cup butter, 4/5 cup flour, 2 cups sugar, 1 1/5 cups ground almonds, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1/5 cup Sherry wine, 3 1/3 tbsp powdered sugar.
Preparation: Beat 2 of the eggs with the butter. Add the flour and stir until you get a smooth dough, then make the thinnest possible layer from it. Put it in a floured and buttered oven dish, shaping the dough into a bowl because you will be pouring the cream into it. Separately, mix the almonds with the sugar and cinnamon.
Add the wine and eggs and mix everything well. Fill the doughy bowl with this mixture and cut away the edges. Put it to bake in a moderate oven for about an hour.
Cut out a St. James cross from cardboard and place it on the cake. Sprinkle everything with powdered sugar; once you remove the cardboard piece you will clearly see the shape of the cross. The cake is made in nearly every Spanish family in honor of the patron of Galicia, St. James.
Other emblematic desserts from Spanish cuisine include: churros, panellets, Spanish chocolate churros, Xixona turron, fried milk, Spanish cake with almonds, Spanish style rice cake, flan with cinnamon.
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