Flaky, laminated pastry shells filled with a creamy egg yolk custard, flavored with cinnamon, or pastel de nata for short, is the world-famous Portuguese dessert invented by Catholic nuns and monks sometime before the 18th century. The preparation is a lengthy one, and every step should be done with the utmost care.
First, the pastry is made by laminating the dough with butter — however, lard was used before, and margarine is commonly used today. The custard is made with just milk, water, sugar, and egg yolks, and flavored with cinnamon, or in some recipes also with vanilla and lemon, which has the purpose of cutting the sweetness of the custard.
TIME
- Preparation time: 1 h 15 min
- Cooking time: 20 min
- Total time: 14 h 15 min
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Made from only four ingredients — milk, sugar, salep, and mastic — Maraş dondurması, which literally translates as Maraş ice cream, is a dessert enjoyed all across Turkey, and it originates from the city of Kahramanmaraş. Located in the southern Mersin province, this town lies on the slopes of the Ahir Mountain, which provides two out of the four ingredients mentioned.
The milk for Maraş dondurması is harvested from the Ahir Mountain goats, and their nutrition consisting of aromatic herbs gives it a distinctive taste. On the other hand, salep or sahlep is a type of flour made from bulbs of a special type of purple orchids growing on the slopes of Ahir Mountain.
TIME
- Preparation time: 45 min
- Cooking time: 25 min
- Total time: 15 h 10 min
Crêpes are thin pancakes from France, originally from the Brittany region, and the name comes from the Old French word for curled. There are sweet crêpes, which use wheat flour and are often filled with things like Nutella or fruit, and savory versions that can be made with either wheat or buckwheat flour and filled with ingredients like cheese or ham.
In France, there's a special day called La Chandeleur (Candlemas), celebrated every February 2nd, on which occasion people traditionally eat crêpes. The basic recipe calls for flour, eggs, milk, water, butter, and salt. Sweet crêpes will also have sugar and be flavored with things like vanilla, orange/lemon zest, and alcohol such as rum, Cognac, Calvados, and Grand Marnier.
TIME
- Preparation time: 15 min
- Cooking time: 20 min
- Total time: 2 h 35 min
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Often dubbed the queen of Arab sweets, kunāfah or konafa is rather simple to prepare — that is if all the ingredients are available. The process starts with kunāfah dough, which is soaked with butter or sometimes ghee (clarified butter) and divided in half.
The first half is then spread on a round-shaped tin to cover the bottom and the sides. Since there are two ways to serve kunāfah — inverted or straight from the pan — the topping made from chopped pistachios or other nuts, such as almonds and walnuts, is placed on either top or the bottom of the kunāfah.
TIME
- Preparation time: 40 min
- Cooking time: 1 h
- Total time: 1 h 40 min
Especially popular in Belgium, gaufres, or waffles are a European dish prepared with yeast batter or dough, then baked using a couple of textured plates. The pattern on the plates determines the waffle's dimensions and surface imprint. Flemish gaufres, or Gauffres à la Flamande, are a round or irregularly shaped waffle variety.
Although sometimes topped with sugar and orange blossom water, they can also be consumed plain. Brussels waffles, rectangular in shape, are an airy and crispy waffle variety with bigger, deeper pockets. Their thick, foamy batter is made with beaten egg whites, without any sugar.
TIME
- Preparation time: 25 min
- Cooking time: 25 min
- Total time: 50 min
MAIN INGREDIENTS
The following recipe is adapted from the Liège Tourisme website (www.en.liegetourisme.be). It includes vanilla sugar, honey, cinnamon or powdered vanilla and some bicarbonate of soda. Make sure to preheat the waffle iron properly – it needs to be hot to stop the waffles from sticking to the cooking surfaces.
TIME
- Preparation time: 25 min
- Cooking time: 1 h 20 min
- Total time: 1 h 45 min
The layered pastry reminiscent of a sea shell, sfogliatella, is the pride and joy of Italy’s Campania region, with origins in the 17th century when it was supposedly created in the Santa Rosa monastery. Today, there are many kinds of sfogliatella, but Campania boats two varieties: sfogliatella frolla and sfogliatella ricca.
The more famous of the group is sfogliatella ricca which is made with puff pastry, while the less known is sfogliatella frolla which is made with shortcrust pastry. And while making the puff pastry version is very time-consuming and requires a lot of work, the shortcrust pastry sfogliatella is much simpler.
TIME
- Preparation time: 2 h
- Cooking time: 50 min
- Total time: 29 h 50 min
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Sicilian cannoli are made by deep-frying pastry dough shells in lard or vegetable oil and then filling them with sweetened ricotta cream, which is typically flavored with orange blossom water and mixed with candied fruit. However, no matter what the flavorings happen to be, traditional cannoli recipes insist on using only fresh sheep's ricotta for the filling.
Cannoli are relatively simple to make; still, frying the pastry shells does require a certain degree of skill. The ingredients for the pastry shells are kneaded into a smooth dough and flattened into a very thin layer, either with a rolling pin or by passing it through a pasta machine.
TIME
- Preparation time: 50 min
- Cooking time: 10 min
- Total time: 5 h
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Picarones, a Peruvian dessert, are made by blending sweet potato and pumpkin into a dough infused with anise and brown sugar. Once the mixture rests and rises, it's shaped into rings and deep-fried until golden and puffy. These doughnut-like treats are then drizzled with chancaca honey, a syrupy concoction infused with cinnamon, cloves, and orange juice.
TIME
- Preparation time: 40 min
- Cooking time: 40 min
- Total time: 5 h 20 min
MAIN INGREDIENTS
The following recipe is adapted from the Visit Flanders website (www.visitflanders.com). If desired, dust the waffles with powdered sugar or decorate with some whipped cream.
TIME
- Preparation time: 15 min
- Cooking time: 40 min
- Total time: 55 min
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