Spanish · Catalonia · dessert

Panellets de Pinyons

Panellets de Pinyons reads nutty 6.3, sweetness 6.0 and citrus 5.2 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Spanish · Catalonia dessert, about 13 hr 5 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Nutty 6.3 · Sweetness 6.0 · Citrus 5.2 · Sourness 4.7 · Richness 4.5 · Fruity 4.1 · Salinity 3.0 · Umami 2.8 · Earthy 1.7 · Floral 1.4 · Bitterness 0.9 · Herbaceous 0.6

What's in it (8)

Time & effort: about 13 hr 5 min (1 hr 5 min active) · effort: medium

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 416.8 kcal, 9.7 g protein, 28.4 g fat, 37 g carbs

Dietary: Vegetarian · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (6 steps)

  1. Panellets are made for the night of 31 October, La Castanyada, and eaten with roast chestnuts and sweet moscatell. The pine nut ones are the originals; the coconut and coffee versions came later. Buy Mediterranean pine nuts if you can — the long thin ones. The short round Chinese ones taste resinous and will ruin the batch.
  2. Boil the potato whole in its skin for about 20 minutes until a knife slides in without resistance. Peel it while hot and push it through a ricer, then spread it out and let it cool completely. The potato is what keeps the marzipan soft and stops it drying to a brick; a sweet potato does the same job with a slightly sweeter result.
  3. Combine the ground almonds, sugar, lemon zest and salt in a bowl and rub them together with your fingertips until evenly mixed. Add the cooled riced potato and the egg yolk and work it to a firm, smooth dough — it should be like cool plasticine, not sticky.
  4. Cover and chill for at least 12 hours. This rest is not optional: the almond oil and the sugar need time to come together, and dough used the same day cracks in the oven.
  5. Roll the dough into balls of about 20 g, a good walnut. Beat the egg white with the water. Roll each ball in the white, then press it firmly into a bowl of pine nuts, rolling until it is completely armoured. Press the nuts in with your palm so they do not fall off.
  6. Heat the oven to 200C (390F). Set the panellets on a lined tray, brush the tops with the remaining egg white, and bake 8 minutes only — until the pine nuts are gold at the tips and the sides are still pale. They firm up as they cool and are best the next day.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.