65 replies to this topic

[Darienne]

I am intending to make Palanquetas with panela and have found a number of recipes. Fany Gerson speaks of making them with honey or piloncillo, but her recipe calls for plain white sugar and corn syrup of all things.

Can I just slot in panela?

Does anyone have a tried and true recipe? Thanks.

[Darienne]

Well, the Palenquetas are made, and I subbed dark brown Piloncillo for white sugar. But then I added a bit more butter and a bit more nuts. And because Gerson's recipe called for cooking the white sugar until it was a golden caramel color...which I could hardly do, starting out with very dark sugar...I cooked until it was 135 degrees C and then poured it out. I picked 135 because it was in between what another palenqueta recipe called for at 117 and a toffee recipe called for at 145. Didn't know what else to do...

Turned out magnificently. Have already eaten far too much. Taking it tomorrow to my 'finally it's come' Mexican cooking class with a bona fide Mexican chef.

[Darienne]

Made the palanquetas a second time, but this time made them with an 'Indian' touch, using pistachios in the mix and ground cardamom. I adore cardamom in desserts. My Indian dentist loved them.

Today I went a step further. PanaCan who lives in Ecuador and just finished her wonderful blog, sent me a recipe for an Ecuadorian candy made with panela called Dulce de Mani.

As usual, making something for the first time, I screwed it up. Cooked it too long, thinking I was making a brittle...which I wasn't...and then after forming them into the called for balls, realized you could break your teeth almost chomping through the thickness of said balls.

So put the balls into the microwave and flattened them all into patties which is fine for brittle.

I think what I'll do in future is use a brittle recipe, with the Ecuadorian additions: roasted peanuts, lime juice and lots of finely shredded ginger.

The ginger is amazing! Thanks PanaCan.

[Genkinaonna]

Wow...that looks amazing! I'm planning on doing a canela and pepita brittle as a garnish for one of my thanksgiving desserts...I need to see if I can track down some panela. Oh no, I have to go shopping at interesting food stores...woe is me ...

[Darienne]

Found this recipe on Pati Jinich, Pati's Mexican Table for Salami de Chocolate. How strange and unusual I thought. Never heard of such a thing before.

...except that it's not originally Mexican at all...but rather Portuguese. And it's made pretty much everywhere in South America. And there are lots of recipes for it. All pretty much the same with minor variations.

So I made it. Ed loved it. Our friend Dawn agreed with me that it basically seemed to have no point. It's good...but...? Maybe I didn't get it right...

[Darienne]

24 hours later, straight out of the freezer sliced...I think it might just taste better today. My recipe didn't say anything about 'time' or 'ripening'...?