Pastelitos de Boniato o Calabaza Sweet Potato Pies

Hello and welcome to my second blog! I'm launching a simple website morvenlindsay.com ready for when I get the green light to go ahead and offer my cooking workshops and catering services in Ruzafa, Valencia, Right now to stay in Spain and get the opportunity to work I am studying which allows me a student visa to live here and study. In the meantime, while I study Spanish and wait for permission to work, I'm learning all about seasonal Valencian dishes and will blog about them here, so watch this space for tasty recipes and news on launching my business.

Luckily right next to my Spanish school is Ruzafa market where the best local, seasonal produce is available 6 days a week. After school I can buy some beautiful ingredients to take home and cook for myself, freinds and family. I'm researching recipes for a cook book about traditional plant based recipes from the Valencian community.

Today I made pastelitos de boniato, sweet potato pies, a delicacy enjoyed traditionally around Christmas but can also be enjoyed all year around. You can make your sweet potato filling and use it for months to come, if stored correctly.

These sweet little pies are in the hearts of all Valencian people, traditionally made by groups of villagers for festivities.

The filling can also be made with pumpkin, prepared the same way as the sweet potato or any other kind of jam you like, orange and angel hair are also popular.

In this recipe 2 large sweet potatoes make enough jam for about 40 pies, but you don't have to make all the pies at once. If you want to make more or less of the filling the proportions remain the same. Weigh the cooked and peeled sweet potato and use half the weight of sugar.

The method of making the pastry in this recipe is how both sweet and savoury pastries are made in the Valencian region. The liquid part is added first, then the sugar (for sweet pastry). Flour is added little by little until a pastry is formed. Usually recipes don't give measurements for the flour as this would vary depending on the cup size you used and the absorbency of the flour. Use small cups for smaller amounts of pastry and larger cups for larger amounts. I will blog savoury pastry recipes in this blog soon!

The sweet pastry has Anis, a Spanish spirit made with aniseed, and Mistela, a local sweet dessert wine, this one comes from Pedralba, a village in La Serranía, Valencia.

This pastry is naturally vegan as the fat used is olive oil. I brushed the pies with almond milk to keep the recipe plant based.

With the same pastry I made some rosquilletas de anis, little crown shaped delicious crumbly cookies with a pop of aniseed, I added a teaspoon of aniseeds to the same pastry, rolled the pastry into a tube and made little crowns. I baked them along with the pastilletas for 10 -15 mins.

Serve the pastelitos and rosquilletas with some Mistela or a glass of red wine for festive cheer!

Pastelitos de Boniato Recipe

Filling

2 sweet potatoes

1 stick of cinnamon

Lemon and orange peel

Sugar (half the weight of the sweet potato)

Pastry

2 cups olive oil

1/2 cup of anise

1/2 cup Mistela wine

1/2 cup of sugar

Flour (plain) around 500g

A little (vegan) milk and sugar to brush on before baking

First make the filling.

Wash and then steam whole sweet potatoes over a little water into which I added the peel and cinnamon sticks. I also used this perfumed liquid to make the sugar syrup.

When the potatoes are cooked, mash them into a purée with a fork or blender.

Add the sugar into the liquid with the cinnamon and peel and cook over low heat until a syrup forms.

When the syrup is ready, remove the cinnamon and peel, add the mashed sweet potato, simmer the mixture, stirring often for around 40 mins until it looks like a sticky paste, like a jam but firmer.

Store in sterilised jars, cool and use when needed.

When you're ready to make the pastry.

Weigh the wet ingredients into a bowl with the sugar, then add flour, bit by bit until you have a pastry that is pliable and not sticky.

Roll the pastry out on a floured surface and make circles.

Put a little bit of the filling in the center of the circle and fold the circle in half, seal the edges with your fingers or a fork.

Paint the pastillets with milk and sugar and bake them in a preheated oven at 180º for around 10-15 minutes until they are golden.

Allow to cool before serving.