Spanish pumpkin jam, more Mallorcan inspired cooking
As mentioned in my post about my slight obsession with Mallorcan ensaimades, I spent a few hours one weekend making a couple of pots of pumpkin jam...yes, you read that correctly pumpkin jam. During my travels in Spain I've found a number of sweet preserves that would be considered unusual back in the UK. Tomato jam seems fairly common (and not that surprising given the climate) and I've also seen carrot jam too (in fact, there are a number of wartime recipes for carrot jam in the UK and I once had a fantastic one studded with cardamom seeds in a B&B in Norfolk). The type of pumpkin jam I came across in Mallorca uses a particular type of squash similar to spaghetti squash which explains it's more poetic name of cabello d'angel or angel's hair jam (due to the fibrous strands of the squash). I couldn't get anything similar so used a heritage variety of squash to make my jam.
The finished preserve is sweet and dense, with a slightly grainy texture but is pretty good on toast and even better as the centre for a Mallorcan robiol, a small sweet pasty like pastry. It's gorgeously orange, like jarred sunshine and passed the stringent test of my super fussy (and rather conservative) colleagues with flying colours.
Spanish pumpkin jam
1-2 medium sized and orange fleshed squashes or pumpkin
jam sugar (with pectin), quantity depends on amount of squash
1 cinnamon stick
1 lemon
Halve your squashes and scrape out the seeds (but leave the skin on). Place the halves into a large pan and just cover with water. Put a lid on the pan and bring to a slow simmer. After 5-10 minutes check the flesh with the tip of a sharp knife. You want it to be just tender, but still holding it's shape. Drain and allow to cool before scraping the cooked flesh from the skin. Weigh the cooked squash before placing into a preserving pan with the same quantity of jam sugar, the juice of a lemon and a whole cinnamon stick. Heat the pan slowly, allowing the sugar to melt, stirring frequently. Once the sugar has dissolved turn up the heat and bring the jam to the setting point (I use the cold plate method to test this). Spoon into sterilised jars whilst still hot and store somewhere out of sunlight.
Use the jam for the recipe below.
Mallorcan Crespells and Robiols
300g plain spelt flour
50g icing sugar
80g cold butter, cubed
juice of 1 large orange
zest of 1 lemon
2 egg yolks
pinch of salt
Line a couple of large baking trays with baking parchment and preheat your oven to 180℃. Sift the flour and icing sugar together and then rub in the cold butter using your fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the orange juice, lemon zest, salt and egg yolks and knead lightly into a smooth dough. Wrap in cling film and allow to rest in the fridge for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the fridge and roll out until about 5mm thick. To make the crespells you traditionally need a flower shaped cutter which I didn't have (on my list for a future visit) but any shape you like will do. For the robiols you need a small circular cutter or the rim of a small glass, place a tsp of pumpkin jam in the centre and then fold the circle in half, crimping the edges together with a fork. I glazed both the crespells and robiols with a little of the leftover egg white for a bit of colour.
Bake the pastries for 15 minutes or until just golden and cool on a rack before dusting with a little icing sugar. For variety I drizzled a little dark chocolate over half of the crespells. They all went pretty quickly and certainly made a difference to the usual box of duty-free sweets bought back to the office.
They also look rather Christmassy (but didn't quite make it beyond 1 December).
The finished preserve is sweet and dense, with a slightly grainy texture but is pretty good on toast and even better as the centre for a Mallorcan robiol, a small sweet pasty like pastry. It's gorgeously orange, like jarred sunshine and passed the stringent test of my super fussy (and rather conservative) colleagues with flying colours.
Spanish pumpkin jam
1-2 medium sized and orange fleshed squashes or pumpkin
jam sugar (with pectin), quantity depends on amount of squash
1 cinnamon stick
1 lemon
Halve your squashes and scrape out the seeds (but leave the skin on). Place the halves into a large pan and just cover with water. Put a lid on the pan and bring to a slow simmer. After 5-10 minutes check the flesh with the tip of a sharp knife. You want it to be just tender, but still holding it's shape. Drain and allow to cool before scraping the cooked flesh from the skin. Weigh the cooked squash before placing into a preserving pan with the same quantity of jam sugar, the juice of a lemon and a whole cinnamon stick. Heat the pan slowly, allowing the sugar to melt, stirring frequently. Once the sugar has dissolved turn up the heat and bring the jam to the setting point (I use the cold plate method to test this). Spoon into sterilised jars whilst still hot and store somewhere out of sunlight.
Use the jam for the recipe below.
Mallorcan Crespells and Robiols
300g plain spelt flour
50g icing sugar
80g cold butter, cubed
juice of 1 large orange
zest of 1 lemon
2 egg yolks
pinch of salt
Line a couple of large baking trays with baking parchment and preheat your oven to 180℃. Sift the flour and icing sugar together and then rub in the cold butter using your fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the orange juice, lemon zest, salt and egg yolks and knead lightly into a smooth dough. Wrap in cling film and allow to rest in the fridge for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the fridge and roll out until about 5mm thick. To make the crespells you traditionally need a flower shaped cutter which I didn't have (on my list for a future visit) but any shape you like will do. For the robiols you need a small circular cutter or the rim of a small glass, place a tsp of pumpkin jam in the centre and then fold the circle in half, crimping the edges together with a fork. I glazed both the crespells and robiols with a little of the leftover egg white for a bit of colour.
Bake the pastries for 15 minutes or until just golden and cool on a rack before dusting with a little icing sugar. For variety I drizzled a little dark chocolate over half of the crespells. They all went pretty quickly and certainly made a difference to the usual box of duty-free sweets bought back to the office.
They also look rather Christmassy (but didn't quite make it beyond 1 December).
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