This is another typical sweet from my hometown I like a lot and it was in my to-cook list. After several failed attempts with magdalenas, I decided finally to give it a go. I had good memories from last December in the bakery so I followed a recipe from my aunt and see.
Ingredients:
- 3 large eggs
- 200gr sugar
- 170ml olive oil
- 1 lemon zest
- 4gr bicarbonate sodic + 4gr tartaric acid
- 400gr-500gr+ plain flour
Process:
- Whisk eggs and sugar very well. Until the mix is foaming
- Add olive oil and lemon zest. Keep whisking
- Add bicarbonate and tartaric acid, keep whisking
- Add flour, shifting it, bit a bit into the mix.
- Pre-heat oven at 200C
- At one point, you will have to use a wooden spoon to keep mixing. This is a critical point. I added the 400gr of flour, and the mix was still too wet so I keep adding bit a bit more flour until I had a dough no too sticky. Keep in mind you need to be able to use a roller and a cookie cutter. So at one point, I pour the dough into the table and tried to knead it adding bits of flour. I was lucky because I had some flashbacks from I was a kid doing the same thing so It helped me to carry on until I had that kind of playful dough but still a bit sticky. If you add too much flour, the biscuits will be hard as stone.
- So once you have the dough ready, use a roller to spread the dough around 1cm thick and use the cookie cutter. In my case it was a round one, in my hometown use a rectangular one with round corners. I may try to “build” something.
- So always putting flour in the surface before spreading the dough with the roller. Use the cutter, and transfer the biscuit to a baking tray with a bit of flour to avoid sticking. When you use the cutter, the biscuit can’t be too sticky, if so, you need to add a bit of flour.
- Once you can’t cut more cookies, form a ball again, and a bit of flour in the surface and roll it. Cut and repeat until you use up all dough.
- Bake the cookies until golden on top. 20 minutes or so.
- Let them cool down, it is very important!
This is before getting to the oven.
This is after the oven.
And these are the real ones I try to match!
They dont look very similar but still I was quite happy with result. For being the first time, it was tasty! I could add more sugar?, maybe a bit less time in the oven?
It is a simple recipe, basic ingredients, and brought me good memories. What else?
And this is a snapshot of how it is really done by the real bakers!
