SOPLILLOS FROM LA ALPUJARRA

Soplillos and Turkish Hibiscus Tea.

Hi friends, I know you are waiting for the spare ribs, and the cheesecake recipes, on the menu in Dinner with friends, but yesterday in the newspaper I read a report of the craft people from Las Alpujarras, And my fingers itched to go ahead and make these cakes, with a huge tradition from this area,the morish invasion, in 711 Granada and  Las Alpujarras was populated by moores and they brought the tradition to make  desserts and cakes, with eggs, almonds , honey and sugar 4 of the most important ingredients  of the North -African gastronomy.

Here comes the shopping-list;

6 huevos grandes.            (Large eggs)
420 gr. azucar blanca.     (Sugar)
150 gr almendras.            (Almonds)
Ralladura de 1 limon.       ( zest of 1 lemon)

This is easy , and you don't need hundreds of ingredients, nor are they difficult to get, begin with separating the whits from the egg yolks, we are only going to use the whites, keep the egg yolks for a tortilla or some dessert, but use them the same day or the next.

In a food processor start to whisk the egg qhites, and go adding the sugar little by little, and continue whisking until you have a syrup like dough.

In the meanwhile chop the almonds into small bites, and grate the peel of one lemon, I found this tool in Ikea some time ago, ( green and white on photo) and it works perfect, as it doesn't take any of the white bitter, only the yellow of the peel.

Add the chopped almonds and the lemon zest, and mix.

Prepare a couple of baking trays with baking paper, I got some silicone baking sheets some time ago, and they work perfect for this, heat the oven to 100 degrees, use an ice-cream spoon to transfer the dough to the baking plates,  this gives about 35 cakes, and the two trays can go in the oven st same time, but change the under with the over try at the middle of the cooking time which is 1 hour and 15 min., this time I used the hot air .

The cakes must not be toasted in colour, they should be whitish and they use to crack a little when they are ready, have a look now and then, I took one out and let it chill a little, then tasted, it shall be crunchy on the outside, and a little toffe-caramel like inside.

My mother embroderied the tablecloth quite a lot of years ago and the tea cups are inherited.
HAVE A NICE WEEK,