PESTIÑOS, A SWEET FOR DUAL HOLIDAYS

 

For whatever holiday you're celebrating: pestiños are honey-glazed fried pastries.

This year both Christmas Eve and the first night of Hanukkah fall on December 24. This recipe for pestiños, honey-glazed fried pastries, is perfect for both holidays. 

In Spain, where nowadays most Christmas sweets are store-bought, pestiños are one of the few that are still homemade. Family and neighbors might gather on a chilly evening to roll, shape and fry pieces of a simple dough. Children can help with the dough, though frying is left to the grownups. 

Ready for 1st night of Hanukkah.

Hanukkah, the "festival of lights," is a Jewish holiday that marks the victory in the 2nd Century BCE of the Maccabees over an occupying force and the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem and the re-lighting of the menorah. Miraculously, the olive oil for the menorah, enough for a single day, lasted for eight days and nights. For that reason the holiday is also a celebration of olive oil when it’s traditional to serve fried foods, both sweet and savory. 

Serve pestiños for a tree-trimming party.

How to serve pestiños? For a Hanukkah party serve the pestiños with pomegranate or grape juice (with or without vodka); mulled wine or hot apple cider. They're equally good for a Christmas tree-trimming party with eggnog.

In Spanish homes, when friends come to visit during the holidays, it’s typical to serve a platter of homemade sweets such as pestiños as well as store-bought mantecados and roscos, accompanied by sweet Málaga wine, aguardiente (anise liqueur) and Spanish brandy de Jerez. 

It's an occasion to catch up on family news and marvel at how much the children have grown, to view the Belén, Nativity scene, and compare recipes for for Noche Buena, the  Christmas Eve festive dinner.

Pestiños are also good for breakfast or afternoon snacks with coffee, hot chocolate, tea or herbal infusions. For dessert, serve pestiños alongside a winter compote of apples and pears stewed with raisins and figs. 

Honey-Glazed Fritters

Pestiños

Serve pestiños for breakfast, snacks, dessert, parties.

These little pastries are fried in oil then dipped in warmed honey to glaze them. Olive oil in the pastry dough is traditional and adds flavor. Olive oil also is best for frying but less expensive sunflower oil (aceite de girasol) can be used instead. 

After dipping the fritters in honey let them dry on a rack for 30 minutes. They will soak up some of the honey but will still be somewhat sticky. If you prefer not to finish them with honey, instead dredge them in sugar while they are still hot. Place the fritters on a rack to cool. 

The dough can be made several days before using and kept refrigerated. Once fried, the fritters are best soon after they are made but can be stored in an air-tight tin up to five days. 

Makes 40 fritters.

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 strip of orange peel

1 teaspoon aniseeds

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour plus additional for rolling out the dough

¾ teaspoon salt

¼ cup orange juice

¼ cup white wine

Oil for frying (olive or sunflower)

½ cup honey

2 tablespoons water

1-2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds

Granulated sugar (optional)

Place the olive oil in a small saucepan with the strip of orange peel. Heat it until it begins to sizzle. Add the aniseeds and remove the pan from the heat. Let the oil stand 5 minutes. Skim out and discard the orange peel.

Cut dough in diamond shapes.

Place the flour in a mixing bowl and stir in the salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the oil with aniseeds. Stir some of the flour into the oil. Add the orange juice and wine and mix them into the flour.  

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it until smooth. The oil in the dough keeps it from sticking, so additional flour probably is not needed. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 1 hour or up to 2 days.

Pinch dough firmly.

Cover a sheet pan with baking parchment. Lightly flour work surface. Unwrap one of the balls of dough and pat to flatten it. Roll it out into more or less a rectangular shape 8 to 10 inches wide and as thin as a penny. Use a knife or pastry wheel to cut strips about 2 inches wide. Cut again on the diagonal, making diamond (rhomboid) shapes of dough. 

Pick up a piece and pinch together the two points that are closest together. Pinch firmly so the dough does not open when fried. Place each folded piece of dough on the sheet pan. Gather up any scraps and roll out again. Save a small bit of dough to use to test the oil temperature. (If desired the sheet of shaped dough can be refrigerated for several hours before continuing with the frying.)

Roll, cut and shape the second ball of dough in the same manner.

Put oil in a pan to a depth of 1 inch. Heat on medium-high. Drop a small ball of dough into the oil. When it begins to sizzle, the oil is hot enough (360ºF). Add the pieces of dough without crowding the pan. When golden-brown on the bottom, carefully flip them to brown the reverse sides. Skim out the fritters and drain on paper towels. Continue frying remaining pieces of dough.

Dip in warmed honey.

 Place the honey in a pan with the water. Bring it to a boil and remove from the heat. Set a rack over a sheet pan to catch drips. One by one dip the fritters into the warm honey. Place them on the rack. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Allow the fritters to dry. They will soak up some of the honey but will still be somewhat sticky. Sprinkle with sugar if desired.

Recipes for winter compotes to serve with pestiños:

Sweet Potato-Molasses Compote.

Quince Compote.

Sherried Fig Compote.

Fruit Compote in Grape Syrup.

Pear Compote with Málaga Wine

More fried pastries:

Crispy "Ears" for Carnival.

Fried Turnovers with Sweet Potato Filling.

Sweet and Crunchy Fried Bread.

CARNAVAL! DOUBLE-MASKING AND CRISPY EARS

 

A masque and a mask for Carnaval.

They closed down the party. No Carnaval this year, due to the ongoing pandemic. Instead of fabulous masks and feathered headdresses, rollicking music and all-night revelry, we have double-masking and curfews.

Carnaval is the pre-Lenten festival, also known as Mardi Gras (theoretically the Tuesday before Lent), that goes on for a couple of weeks and is celebrated throughout Spain. This year it will be virtual. 

I feel sorry for the many makeup artists, costume designers and seamstresses who are out of work this year. (The spangled costume and flamboyant headdress of a Canary Island carnival queen can weigh more than 400 kilos/880 pounds and strut some 7000 feathers. They need rollers so that the wearer can move.)

But, the confectioners and bakers are still doing good business, as folks line up to buy typical Carnaval sweets and pastries. With home quarantine, probably many are even making some of the traditional goodies at home.

A typical Carnaval treat--crispy fried "ears."

In Galicia (northwestern Spain), a typical Carnaval pastry is orejas, or orellas de Entroido in Galician, “ears” for Carnaval. The ears are pieces of dough fried crisp and sprinkled with sugar. They are a delight with coffee, tea, hot chocolate or a copita of fiery aguardiente de orujo, clear grape brandy.

In “green” Galicia, where dairy cattle thrive, butter is more prevalent than in Mediterranean Spain. Butter is used for making the simple dough. Rendered pork fat (lard) or “vegetable” oil, usually sunflower oil, are also used. In Castilla-La Mancha, similar fried pastries, called hojuelas, are made with only olive oil. As are a similar Sephardic Jewish treat called orejas de Hamán, Haman’s ears, traditional for the holiday of Purim (which this year is from the evening of February 25 until the following evening.)

These ears are easy to make—cut free-form “ears” from dough rolled out very thinly. Don’t flour the work surface; oil it lightly.

 If you want to get artistic, after placing a piece of dough in the frying oil, use two forks to push edges together, crimping the dough into the form of an ear. I recommend olive oil for frying the pastries, although any vegetable oil can be used. You don’t need deep oil for frying. A half-inch of oil in the frying pan is sufficient. Add additional oil as needed. Moderate the heat so the dough doesn’t brown too quickly. 

After frying, the ears are sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and a little powdered sugar.

Crispy “Ears” for Carnival

Orejas de Carnaval

Makes 25 (4 X 3-inch) fried ears.

1/3 cup melted butter, lard or vegetable oil

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon anise liqueur, brandy or sweet Sherry

¼ cup orange juice, milk or water

Grated zest of 1 lemon or orange

2 cups + 2 tablespoons flour

¼ teaspoon salt

Oil for work surface and for frying

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Honey (optional) 

Confectioner’s sugar (optional)

In a small bowl combine the butter, lard or oil, beaten egg, liqueur, orange juice or other liquid and grated zest.

Place the flour in a mixing bowl and stir in the salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the liquid ingredients. Use a wooden spoon or fork to mix until the dough forms a soft ball. Knead the dough briefly, either in the bowl or on a work surface. Form into a smooth ball and cover with a clean cloth or plastic wrap. Let the dough stand at room temperature for 1 hour.

Place olive oil in a skillet to a depth of ½ inch. Place on moderate heat.

Before rolling out the dough, brush the work surface and rolling pin lightly with oil

Cut free-form ear shapes.

You need about 1/2 inch of oil for frying the ears.

Drain fried pastries on paper towels, then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Olive oil is best for frying.

Lightly oil the work surface and the rolling pin. Divide the dough into 8 equal balls. Roll out one ball as thinly as possible. Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into “ears,”—triangles, rhomboids, trapezoids or free-form. Transfer the cut shapes to the hot oil. Fry them until golden on both sides, 2-3 minutes. Remove the fried dough with a skimmer and drain on paper towels. Continue rolling, cutting and frying the remaining dough.

Combine the granulated sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle the fried ears generously with the cinnamon sugar. If desired, sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar as well. (Alternatively to the cinnamon sugar, boil a few tablespoons of honey with a little water for 1 minute. Brush the honey syrup over the ears.)

More Carnaval goodies:

Sweet Rolls with Lard (Ensaimadas).

Galician Crêpes (Filloas).

Fried Pumpkin Puffs (Buñuelos).

Carnaval Street Food.

Carnaval Pork and Vegetable Stew.