Spelt carquinyolis or Catalan cantuccini

No, no, no... these are not cantuccini... these are carquinyolis... totally different... (ahem). I'd been wanting to make these typical Catalan cookies for a long time (do I start my posts like this too often?...). As you probably know, this type of twice baked cookies, first as a loaf and then sliced, are known as cantuccini in Italy and they also exist in Jewish ashkenazi cookery, with the name of mandelbrot, almond bread. They are typical in Catalonia, on the Northeast corner of Spain. When I was a child we used to spend part of our summer holiday camping in Catalonia and my parents used to buy carquinyolis. I didn't eat them though... didn't know what I was missing.


I've found the recipe at the lovely Catalan blog La cuina vermella. I've increased the amounts by 50 %, I've used white spelt instead of regular flour, and I've "adulterated" the cookies by adding some dried cherries... just to add a colour touch (heresy! I beg the Catalans pardon... please bear with me).


Spelt carquinyolis (yields approx. 35 carquinyolis)

• 600g spelt flour, white (all-purpose flour can be substituted, of course)
  
• 350g sugar
• 90g almond meal or ground almonds (what's the right name?)
  
• 100g unskinned, unroasted almonds
  
• 90g dried cherries (or any other colorful dried fruit)
• 1 tbsp leaven, not completely heaped
  
• 3/4 tbsp cinammon
  
• Lemon zest
• 4-5 medium eggs (it depends on the size of the eggs, the dough mustn't be dry, but sticky) and another egg for brushing the loafs before baking

Put the almonds in a bowl with water to soak. Weigh the dry ingredients and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs in the well and mix slowly and carefully with the dry ingredients. Knead the resulting dough until all the liquid has been absorbed. If the result is too crumbly, just add another egg. Finally add the almonds, rinsed and dried with a paper towel, and the cherries. Knead to incorporate.


In the meantime heat the oven to 180 ºC. Divide the dough in two and, on a well-floured counter, form two loafs that can fit in one baking sheet. Transfer the loafs to the sheet, lined with parchment paper. Brush the loafs with the beaten egg (I forgot this step!). Put the loafs in the oven and bake half an hour. The loafs have to be somewhat thin, as they rise quite a lot in the oven. After 30 minutes, try for doneness with a toothpick. Take them out to a cooling rack and leave to rest for 5 minutes. Then slice them with a good serrated knife into 1 cm-thick slices, more or less. I'm not capable of cutting thinner slices. Then put the slices back on the baking sheet and back into the oven for 10 minutes to brown. Turn them once when half baked, to brown on both sides. When done take them out to cool on a rack.


For those who've never had this type of cookie before, they are hard and very crunchy. Catalans dunk them in mistela... mmm. I vouch that at home we have dunked them in cava last Christmas. A lot of cava. Really a lot. Loads of cava. I don't know if this is accepted as a traditional way to have carquinyolis, but what the hell, they're delicious that way...

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Easy applesauce cake and a leaven

I baked this cake a couple of weeks ago, but I had conveniently freezed it for future famines... like those that happen at my home at anytime. But look at this cutie, say something to him, goo-goo sweetie... I found the recipe in an American website, but due to my famous organizing skills I forgot to record the name of the source when I copied it... I apologize for that, careless, careless. It's a very easy cake, because it doesn't use yolks beaten with sugar nor egg whites.

Back to the point, I was the proud owner of an applesauce surplus. I had woken up one day with the inevitable need to make applesauce with 2 pounds of apples. Yeah, pretend you never do pointless things. I love applesauce, I often eat it as part of my breakfast, but this was too much for me.

Allright, I decided to put my surplus to good use and invest it in this very promising cake. Here goes the recipe:

Applesauce cake

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
  
• 2 cups applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  

Heat the oven to 350ºF (180 ºC) if conventional type and to 340ºF (170 ºC) if convection type. Butter and flour a couple of loaf pans. Sieve the flour in a bowl with the baking powder, the baking soda, the salt and the cinnamon. In another bowl (a big one) or in the blender bowl mix the eggs, sugar, oil, applesauce and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients on the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly to avoid any lumps. Pour this concoction in the pans never going above 2/3 of the height (better leave plenty of room than have the cake overflowing) and bake it for 50 minutes. After this time check for doneness with a knife or something similar and take it out. Leave it to cool in the pan, the consistency is quite soft when hot.

The amounts are enough for 2 loaf pans and 4 cupcake molds...


The essential to this is that I found it one of the best cakes I've ever tasted, very humid and tasty, I guess because of the applesauce. Nevertheless I didn't find the applesauce flavour to be very evident. On the other hand the flavour of the extra virgin oil I had used for vegetable oil was indeed VERY evident. I used a delicious Spanish oil from Badajoz, the oil I use for everything at home. I order a large amount once a year and have it immediately delivered. This oil has a relatively strong flavour when uncooked, but it is a lot softer when cooked. I love it and I think it gave the cake a very characteristic and wonderful touch.

Some changes I made to the recipe: I used less sugar and didn't add the cinnamon, I thought it a bit risky with my kids. I could have taken it out of the oven a bit before the end of the 50 minutes, because you can see the crust is a bit too toasted. Next time I will keep an attentive eye on it. And instead of the baking soda and the baking powder, I used my secret weapon: chemical leaven prepared at home, according to this. I will never reveal the secret composition, unless you force me to... alright, if you insist...

Chemical leaven:

• 1.3oz cream of tartar
• 0.6oz baking soda
  

You love this straightforward amounts, don't you? I was sure. They can be multiplied to obtain a measurable amount for mortals. The ratio given by Spanish pastry chef Paco Torreblanca is 1.9oz of mixture per 2 pounds of flour. In spite of the proportioning, I can assure it works beautifully. Ever since I use this secret formula I've had no cakes sinking, but maybe it's a coincidence... Yes, I belong to Cakesinkers Anonymous... everybody has a past.

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