Christmas is fast approaching, that time of year when the calendar tells us to gather with loved ones around a table and share the best of our local cuisine. Christmas is one of those holidays where the most traditional recipes, like pestiños, come together on the same table. We went behind the scenes at Alfonso Catering with César Rodríguez, their chef, to see how to make this sweet and typical Jerez recipe.
We invite you to try making them to share during the holidays. You'll enjoy both the preparation and the tasting. And you're sure to impress.
Ingredients (4 people):
- 100g of fine wheat flour
- Sugar
- 1 egg
- 125ml olive oil
- 30ml of fine Jerez wine
- 15ml of dry anise
- Cinnamon stick
- 30 gr of ground almonds
- 9 grams of sesame seeds
- 10 gr of matalhaúva (anise seeds)
- Lemon peel
- Orange Peel
- Miel
Preparation:
Mix the flour with the sugar, egg, ground almonds, fine wine and dry anise in a large, wide container so that you can mix the dough well.
In a frying pan or saucepan, lightly fry the cinnamon stick, orange and lemon peel, and aniseed in the oil to infuse it with their aroma. Strain the oil and pour it into the batter mixture. Add the sesame seeds.
Mix the ingredients well until the dough is homogeneous.
Let the dough rest for two hours covered with a clean cloth or linen on top.
After two hours, roll out the dough on a clean, smooth surface. You can sprinkle it with flour or grease the surface with oil to prevent the dough from sticking.
Using a narrow-mouthed glass, such as a wine glass, cut out round shapes from the dough. You can use any other glass, depending on how large you want your pestiños to be. Roll up the cut-out dough to make the characteristic pestiño shape and fry in plenty of hot oil until golden brown.
In a separate container, heat the honey and dilute it with a little water to make it more liquid.
Once the pestiños are well fried, we coat them in honey, which is the name given to the process of bathing the sweets in honey.
A very Jerez-style way to accompany these pestiños could be with some sweet wine from the region.