Carnival flowers

Carnival season is over and I didn't find the time to make these flowers... But the idea of making them had got into my head and it wouldn't let go. So I made them this week, better late than never. And that gives me the chance to use another one of my gazillions of kitchen gadgets that I use every 2 years... more or less: the lovely flower mold. It makes me so happy... It was quite dusty, poor thing. I had to clean it up with one of those baby bottle brushes, that I still keep for this kind of use. So I brandished my gleaming mold and embarked on making these flowers.


What? That you can't find such a mold in your neighborhood? I found out that a very similar device is used in South East Asia for a surprisingly related kind of cookie.



These sweets are typically eaten around Carnival in many regions of Spain. They are deep-fried in oil, which is a very common method of cooking sweets around here. They seem to originate in the region of La Mancha, and imitate the shape of the ancient Order of Calatrava emblem. The recipe I use comes from Segovia, from the book Cocina Segoviana, by Dionisio Duque, out of print (Segovia is a beautiful town, included in the UNESCO World Heritage sites for its old quarter and aqueduct). This Mr. Duque was the owner of a very famous and traditional restaurant in Segovia, Asador Duque, a place I used to frequent with my parents when I was a kid... certainly long ago. The restaurant prides itself on being the oldest one in Segovia. And I'm sure you'll love that the measures are given in spoonfuls and egg shells...



Carnival flowers
Yields around 25 flowers

• 6 medium eggs
• 6 egg shells water (half of the egg shell, in fact)
• 1 egg shell anise liquor
  
• 12 tbsp flour (I had to add more, the final consistency of the batter should be similar to pancake batter, somewhat on the thinner side)
• 1/2 tbsp aniseed crushed in a mortar
• Sunflower oil for deep-frying
• Sugar for sprinkling
  

Well, my first tweaking is to put more anis liquor and less water... that's very personal.

1. Break the eggs, mix them in a bowl or food processor and keep a half shell for measuring the liquid ingredients. Add the liquids and then the flour and aniseed.
   
2. Mix thoroughly to avoid any lumps.
3. Transfer the batter to a bowl deep enough to easily accommodate the mold. Sorry that I don't have photos of the process, but I was alone and it wasn't very easy to do everything at the same time.
   
4. Pour 6-7cm of sunflower oil in a small frying pan (you can only make one flower at a time with one mold...) and put it on medium heat. In Spain we recommend to use sunflower oil for frying sweets because of its neutral flavor.
   
5. When the oil is quite hot, but not releasing any smoke, dip the mold in the oil to heat it (cover it in oil).
   
6. Within a minute or two, take the mold out of the pan and dip it in the batter. Be careful not to dip it entirely, leave uncovered a space of around 1cm, otherwise you won't be able to remove the flower. The moment you dip the mold in the batter, this sticks to the mold and it tends to get loose when it's fried.
   
7. Completely dip the battered mold in the oil and keep it in until the flower is golden.
8. Once the flower is golden enough, peel it off the mold pushing carefully with a wooden spoon, in case it's not loose yet. Place the flower on kitchen paper to absorb some of the oil.
   
9. Sprinkle with sugar. Cinammon can be added too.

This is a very crunchy cookie, not oily at all in spite of the frying. They were fantastic... I made them at lunch time and by bedtime there were only four left...