Vegan Panellets

Vegan panellets
Vegan panellets

Along with chestnuts and sweet potatoes, in these dates in which we find can not miss the sweet made from almonds called panellets .

The panellets are a typical sweet of Catalonia, Aragon, the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands, which is consumed on the night of October 31st at the vigil of Todos los Santos , at the time of the year when the Castañada is celebrated in Catalonia and Aragon.

The festival of All Saints has its origin in the Celtic festival called Samhain , where it was celebrated that the period of the year of living nature had ended and that of darkness began. It was considered that at that time of the year, the land of the dead and the living came into contact, so it is also referred to as the feast of the dead.

With the arrival of the Romans Christianity also arrived, and with it, the tradition of venerating the deceased with offerings in the form of sweet rolls that were deposited in the churches and the tombs of loved ones. These rolls were the same ones that were served to eat when a family member died, because as they are a food that endures a lot, it was related to eternity and memory to the deceased.

But it was not until s.VII when Pope Boniface IV named the November 1 as All Saints Day (All Hollows Eve in English, now known as Halloween) consecrating the Pantheon to the Virgin and all the martyrs, the which had been dedicated by the Romans to All the Gods.

As for the nutritional contribution, the panellets are, thanks to the almond , a great source of energy for its content in complex carbohydrates (slow absorption and satiating effect), rich in proteins , phytosterols and omega 6 fatty acids and, especially, omega 9 They are also rich in fiber , vitamins A , E and group B ( B1 , B2 , B5 , B6 , B7 and B9 or folic acid ), calcium , iron , magnesium , phosphorus , potassium , selenium and zinc .

Below you can see what ingredients you need and what steps you have to follow to be able to enjoy incredible pineapple, almond, coconut and candied cherry panellets without eggs, potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Difficulty levelPreparation timeRations
Medium1 h.For 20 units

Ingredients

  • 250 gr. ground almonds
  • 300 gr. whole cane sugar
  • skin zest of 1/2 lemon
  • 200 ml. water
  • 100 gr. pinion
  • 100 gr. almond
  • 100 gr. coconut (grated)
  • candied cherries

Instructions

  1. First of all we will prepare a syrup. In a saucepan, we put 200 gr. of sugar and 200 ml. of water and heat over medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring constantly to avoid crystallization and sticking. After this time, we remove it from the fire and let it cool.
  2. In a large bowl, put the ground almonds, 100 gr. of sugar, lemon zest and half of the syrup, and mix everything well with your hands until you have a consistent dough.
  3. In a small bowl, add the rest of the syrup and, in different saucers, put the pine nuts, the chopped almonds, the grated coconut, a little sugar and the candied cherries cut in half.
  4. We preheat the oven to 200º and, while, we form with the mass 5 balls of about 3 cm. of approximately diameter, we pass them through the syrup and coat them with pine nuts, making sure they are hooked. As it is likely that this way they do not finish fixing, we take a few pine nuts with our hands and pass the ball for them pressing lightly (even so, we do not rule out the possibility of having to finish hooking them one by one: 3). As we have them ready, we put them on a baking tray with vegetable paper.
  5. Next, we take 5 more pieces of dough and give them an elongated shape. We pass them through the syrup, coat them with the almonds and place them on the tray where we have the balls with pine nuts.
  6. We take another 5 pieces of dough and we give them a mushroom shape. We put them in the syrup, we coated them in coconut and we put them on the tray as well.
  7. Finally we make the last 5 panellets in the shape of a ball, flatten them lightly pressing with the index finger in the center and coat them with sugar. In the small hole that will have been in each of them, we place half a candied cherry and, when we have them ready, we put them on the tray next to the others.
    Panellets preparados para entrar en el horno
    Panellets preparados para entrar en el horno
  8. With a little of the syrup that we have left over to coat, we lightly brush the top of each of the panellets (with very little syrup), except the cherry, of which only "varnish" around it (also very little ).
  9. When the oven is hot, lower it to 175º and introduce the panellets for 10-12 minutes to brown, checking that they do not burn. After this time, we take them out of the oven and let them cool.
Panellets ready!
Panellets ready!

Notes

  • If you do not have ground almonds, you can make them by grinding raw almonds in a grinder. You only have to grind handful to handful, and intermittently so as not to burn the engine, and repeat until the almonds have completely turned to dust, sifting if necessary.
  • Check that cherries in syrup do not carry the additive E-120 (or carmine), since it is of animal origin (cochineal).
  • As you can see, the syrup we use to replace the egg of the traditional recipe.
  • When folding the panellets with the pine nuts, you may find the lifelong trick of leaving the pine nuts bathed in the binder (which in this case is the syrup) for an hour or two, although we do not. we have tested.

If you have any questions, you can leave it to us in the comments. And if you dare and want to show your creations to the world, do not hesitate to label us, we will love to see them through the networks! :)

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