Panallets – traditional Christmas bites
These little morsels of delight, are called panallets (pronounced pan-ah-jets).
Although a customary dessert for all saints day in Catalonia and Andorra, they are traditionally made during the Christmas period on the Rock of Gibraltar where I hail from.
These little guys are so easy to make, are gluten free, look impressive on your table and taste super nice to boot.
They are traditionally made with sweet potato, but you can substitute with a white potato if you don’t like the taste of sweet potato. Although once the ingredients are all mixed in you cannot tell the difference.
As always this was my grandmothers recipe and I’ve included the basic dough with four versions to make. I usually prepare one batch and bake this whilst I’m preparing the next.
I hope you give these little bites a try as you will be very impressed with the final product.
ENJOY
Ingredients
500 grams of sweet potato ( boiled and peeled to that weight) cooled
700 grams Almond Flour, basically very finely pulsed skinless almonds. Raw.
500 grams granulated sugar
1 large egg - (2.25 @grams)
100 grams pine nuts
3 tablespoons chocolate powder
100 grams Desiccated Coconut
Granulated sugar and whole skinless almonds to decorate (see pic for guide)
Glacé cherries and icing sugar.
1 egg separated ( whichever size you have, as it’s for rolling and brushing)
Mini muffin/ cupcake moulds. The little paper ones.
Instructions
1
Mash the sweet potato until there are no lumps, add the granulated sugar and mix, then add the almond flour and mix, and finally add in the egg and mix to combine.
Allow dough to chill for 2 hours or overnight in your fridge.
2
Pre heat oven 190° C fan oven
3
Divide dough into four equal parts. I usually weigh these out.
Line four baking sheets with greaseproof paper or silicone sheet.
4
1st quarter of Dough.
Roll into small balls big enough to fit your mini cupcake mould.
Roll these balls in some granulated sugar and decorate with an almond piece stuck into,the top of the balls. Brush with beaten egg yolk.
Bake in middle shelf of oven for 10 minutes until golden brown
5
2nd quarter of dough.
Once again roll into small balls , then roll in the egg white and roll in the pine nuts, so that they coat the whole ball, place into mini cupcake moulds and brush with beaten egg yolk.
Bake in middle shelf of oven for 10 minutes until golden brown
6
3rd quarter of dough.
Add 40 grams of the dessicated coconut into the dough and mix to incorporate throughout. Once again roll into small balls, then roll in the egg white and roll in the remaining desiccated coconut so that they coat the whole ball, place into mini cupcake moulds.
Bake in middle shelf of oven for 10 minutes until golden brown
7
Last batch of dough.
Add in the 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder, mix to incorporate. Roll into balls, roll in the icing sugar place into the mini cupcake mould and top with 1/2 a glacé cherry. You might need to press the cherry down slightly to ensure adhesion.
Bake in middle shelf of oven for 10 minutes until golden brown
8
Allow to cool slightly on the baking sheet before transferring carefully to a wire rack to fully cool.
9
And there you go , gluten free panallets , Cosykitchencorner style as my grandmother used to make them.
