HEAVENLY DESSERT

Angel’s hair and sweet almonds are made in heaven. Angel’s hair, or cabello de angel, is the confiture of squash that I made a couple weeks ago (that recipe is here). It’s a favorite filling for Andalusian empanadillas, fried turnovers, for cortadillos de cidra, a lard shortbread pastry, and for Mallorican ensaimadas, a spiral sweet roll. This Galician tart that combines the angel’s hair with almonds intrigued me.

A puff pastry tart is filled with golden strands of angel's hair and sweetened almonds.

The classic tarta mondoñedo (from the town of Mondoñedo in Lugo province of Galicia), according to the recipe by Álvaro Cunqueiro in Cociña Galega, the bible of Galician cooking, is made with layers of bizcocho (sponge cake) soaked in sugar syrup, angel’s hair and ground almonds baked in a crust of puff pastry and topped with pastry lattice and candied fruits. Sounds divine.

On a TV show I watched a pastelera (pastry maker) in Santiago de Compostela make a variation on the classic tart, omitting the sponge layer and mixing the ground almonds with eggs and sugar to spread on top of the angel’s hair. That reminded me a lot of Santiago Almond Torte, which I adore, so I decided to try the variation.

If my tart was a little short of celestial, it was not for lack of golden angel’s hair. The problem was the hojaldre, puff pastry. I don’t get it about puff pastry—why use it if it can’t puff and get crisp? Compressed as the base of the tart, the crust was pasty. I think I would use a pasta quebrada (flaky shortcrust pastry) on the next try.

Traditionally the tart is decorated with candied cherries, red and green. Incredibly, I couldn't find any. Just weeks after Christmas, all the stores cleared their inventory of candied fruits. All I found were candied kiwis!

A layer of sweet, golden angel's hair is topped with sweetened ground almonds and a lattice crust.

Sooo sweet!

Galician Tart with Angel’s Hair and Almonds
Tarta Mondoñedo

Not everyone will be able to make cabello de angel, angel’s hair, the candied squash confected from the strands of cidra, Malabar gourd. In Spain, you’ll find it in cans or jars, with other jams and marmalades at the supermarket. If not available, use apricot jam for this tart.

If angel’s hair or jam is too stiff to spread, mix it with 1 tablespoon boiling water to loosen it slightly.

Makes 16 thin slices.

Angel's hair--cabello de angel.

2 ½ cups unsweetened ground almonds (8 ounces)
1 sheet frozen puff pastry (8.5 ounces), thawed
1 cup (packed) candied angel’s hair (10 ounces)
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
4 eggs + 1 for brushing top of tart
¾ cup sugar + 1 tablespoon for glaze
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons flour + additional for rolling out pastry
Candied cherries to decorate

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Toast ground almonds.

Spread the ground almonds on a rimmed baking sheet and place in the oven, turning them once or twice, until uniformly toasted and golden, about 12 minutes. Allow the almonds to cool.

Raise oven temperature to 425ºF.

Lightly grease a 9-inch round cake pan and line it with baking parchment, leaving an overhang of the parchment to help in removing the tart from the pan.

On a lightly floured board, roll the puff pastry just enough to cut a round to fit in the bottom of the cake pan. Save the scraps of dough. Place the pastry in the pan. 

Parchment overhangs.

Spread angel's hair.

Spread angel’s hair on top of the puff pastry dough.  

In a mixing bowl, beat 4 eggs with ¾ cup sugar until light. Add the zest, juice, flour and ground almonds and mix well. 

Spread the almond batter on top of the angel’s hair in the cake pan.

Roll out remaining scraps of puff pastry and cut them into strips, ½ inch wide and long enough to criss-cross the top of the tart. Place the strips on top of the tart in a lattice. Decorate the top with candied cherries. 

Beat remaining egg with 1 teaspoon water. Brush the pastry lattice with egg. (You will only need half of the beaten egg.)

Bake the tart 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 375ºF. Bake until the pastry is golden-brown and the almond filling is done (skewer inserted in center comes out clean), 20-25 minutes. 

Cool the tart on a rack. While tart is cooling, make a simple sugar glaze. Boil 1 tablespoon sugar with ¼ cup water until reduced by half. Brush the top of the tart with the glaze.

To serve, loosen the sides of the tart with a sharp knife. Use the overhanging parchment to lift and slide the tart out onto a platter. Carefully pull the parchment out from under the tart. Use a serrated knife to cut the tart into thin wedges.

Because the filling is so sweet, the tart can be served in very small slices.

Cidra--Malabar gourd--from which the angel's hair is confected.

Another pastry dough:

Flaky Pastry (Pasta Quebrada).

More recipes with angel's hair:

Mallorcan Sweet Rolls (Ensaimadas).

Fried Turnovers with Pumpkin Jam.

Another almond tart: Santiago Almond Torte.

SPINNING SQUASH INTO GOLD

Golden angel's hair, an unusual marmalade.

This pot of gold comes from an unusual squash called cidra. Cidra is the Malabar gourd, Cucurbita ficifolia, or “fig-leaf” gourd. In Spain it seems to be grown for only one purpose—the confection of cabello de angel, “angel’s hair,” a golden confiture of candied strands of the squash. Angel’s hair is used as a filling in many traditional pastries. 

Cidra is a type of squash. The flesh is candied to make a filling for typical Spanish pastries.

These empanadillas are filled with cabello de angel, angel's hair made of candied squash.

I used to grow cidra as a decorative object. I once had a row of five of them on a shelf, each slightly different in striations and shapes. Edible sculpture. However, if I wanted to make a Spanish recipe, such as the filling for empanadillas, or little pies, I bought the angel’s hair in a can at the supermarket. The recipes for the confiture seemed too arcane: “use only a cidra that has aged” (I still don’t know why, nor how long is “aged”); “use a hatchet to break it open” or “crack it open by dropping it on the floor.”

Now that I’ve actually made angel’s hair, I can divulge the secrets of cidra. It indeed has a tough hide, like leather. This is probably why it has an extremely long “shelf life.” I was able to pierce it with a knife and prise it open. But, hey, if dropping it on the floor works, go for it.

Traditional recipes for cidra call for cooking the squash in a pot of water for up to an hour. Perhaps the microwave would work—as it does beautifully for spaghetti squash? Yes! The cidra needed only 12 minutes to become tender enough to shred.

But, no, cidra is not the same as spaghetti squash, which is a cultivar of Cucurbita pepo. (I still can’t say if spaghetti squash would work in the confection of angel’s hair. I intended to settle the issue, but my home-grown spaghetti squash turned out to be a butternut mutant and did not separate into strands.)  And, although the name "cidra" is also used in South America to designate the chayote (see last week’s blog for a photo of that green cucurbita), the Malabar gourd is different from chayote.

The threads of squash pulp cook with lots of sugar, lemon zest and cinnamon.

Sauteed al ajillo (with garlic).

I can tell you that cidra is the most tasteless food I have ever tried! No wonder it has to be candied with a huge quantity of sugar. I experimented with the cooked cidra in a savory dish, sauteeing it in olive oil with sliced garlic, al ajillo. Meh.

Old recipes for angel’s hair call for an equal weight of the pulp and sugar. I decreased the sugar, using 75 percent of the weight of the pulp.

If preserving the angel's hair, use sterile jars. (Pictured is the yield of one cidra.)

In the traditional kitchen, the angel’s hair is preserved in jars for use all year long. If you intend to do this, use the full weight of sugar. Place the hot confiture in sterile jars and process them in a boiling water bath. Or, freeze it.

Like marmalade, angel's hair is good on breakfast toast.

What am I going to use the angel’s hair for? I’m trying to decide between several pastries. Meanwhile, the kids used it like marmalade, as a topping for breakfast toast. They think it would be good on a peanut butter sandwich. I’m thinking it would be nice with mild queso fresco, fresh white goat’s cheese.

Angel’s Hair Confiture (Candied Squash)
Cabello de Angel (Cidra Confitada)

Spun gold.

Cinnamon and lemon zest are the traditional additions to this confiture. If you like candied lemon peel, you might prefer to shred the lemon zest finely and mix with the strands of squash rather than remove the strip of zest after cooking.

After cooking and draining the squash pulp, weigh it. Use ¾ of the weight in sugar. I had 670 grams of pulp; 75 percent of that weight was 500 grams of sugar. Measured by volume, it was 2½ cups of squash and 2 ½ cups of sugar.

1 Malabar gourd, squash (cidra)
Sugar
Cinnamon stick
Strip of lemon zest
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Before cooking, the flesh of the cidra is very white, stringy around the seeds, solid inside the skin. Seeds are mainly black, but little transparent ones run through the stringy bits of flesh. After cooking, the rim of flesh inside the skin will separate into strands.

Wash the squash and split it open. Divide in halves or quarters. Remove as many seeds as possible. 

Place the squash, cut side down, on a plate and cover with a microwave-safe vented lid. Microwave on high for 6 minutes. Leave the squash in the microwave for 5 minutes. Turn it cut side up. Cover and microwave for 6 minutes. Leave it 5 minutes before opening. 

Use forks or fingers to separate the flesh from the shell. Separate the flesh into strands. 

When the squash is cool enough to handle, scoop the flesh out of the shell. Use a fork to separate it into strands, discarding any remaining seeds. Cut away the knob of flesh at the stem end. Place the shredded squash in a colander and let it drain for 60 minutes. 

Weigh the pulp. Use ¾ the weight of sugar. Place the squash and sugar in a heavy pot with the cinnamon stick and lemon zest. Add the lemon juice. Stir to combine sugar and squash strands. Allow to sit 30 minutes.

The pulp of the squash cooks with sugar, cinnamon and lemon zest until thickened into marmalade. In this photo, the mixture has just begun to cook. 

Bring the sugar and squash to a boil. Reduce heat to medium so the mixture bubbles gently. Cook, stirring frequently, until the liquid is cooked away, the squash is a pale gold and thick like jam or marmalade. (Depending on quantity and heat level, this can take 60 minutes or more.)

Remove cinnamon and zest. Ladle the angel’s hair into hot, sterile jars and seal. (Or, if freezing, allow to cool before packing in plastic freezer containers.)