A Spanish Pastry
A translation of this recipe can be found in the cookbook of Sabina Welserin, (1553, German)
A Spanish Pastry:
What I did:
I ended up makeing several references to other cook books for the reconstruction of the pastry, and this is what I came up with
- Combined just a bit under 3 cups flour, +/- 5 tbsp of fat (I used mixed fat that I had saved from cooking that week but lard or shortening can be used just as easily) and wine to make moist enough.
- troubleshooting: if it is too dry, add more wine, if too wet then knead in a bit more flour. Of course this only works for minor troubles.
- note- This pastry is supposed to be stiff and it can be a bit of work to roll out. The original directions suggest that we would keep rolling until the table was covered. The great thing about it is that it is moveable and can be flipped around with ease, as well it also means with little effort.
- once rolled out to desired thinness, cut out the pastry in the shape of a square or rectangle.
- Spread over this some butter
- Then sprinkle a nice even layer of crushed almonds (coarser hand crushed almonds might be nicer, this is what I used and the results were pleasing)
- Then sprinkle sugar evenly over the top of the crushed almonds
- Now, roll this up like you would a jelly roll and make slits across the top as if you were slicing off sections, but not going all the way through
- now it says to seal the ends, however, it seems to me one could easily take this step btween rolling it up and slitting the top.
- I ended up rubbing it with a little butter before baking it in the oven however this step was not in the original recipe. The results were well recieved however, and it came out of the oven with a nice golden pastry.
much like strudel and Very Excellent! Like a delicate/dryish/non-spicy baklava but no need for syrup or honey as the sugar/butter caramelizes. I'd make this for many special occasions.
Warning- if your going to cheat and try to make this with phyllo pastry, try to find the instruction for useing it with a strudel because the pastry alone will flake too much to work well with this recipe.
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