Polvoron

Toasted flour pressed into moulds, with no baking at any point.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter).

Ingredients

• 300 g plain flour
• 150 g full-fat milk powder
• 150 g caster sugar
• 200 g butter, melted
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Method

1. TOAST THE FLOUR IN A DRY PAN over a medium heat, stirring constantly, for 12 to 15 minutes until it turns pale beige and smells biscuity.
2. This is the only cooking in the recipe. Raw flour is the difference between a polvoron and a mouthful of paste, and it cannot be skipped or shortened.
3. Keep it moving. Flour catches and scorches in patches without warning, and a burnt fleck is detectable in a sweet this plain.
4. Cool the toasted flour completely, then mix in the milk powder, sugar and salt.
5. Pour in the melted butter and work it to a mixture that holds when you squeeze a handful and falls apart when you open your hand.
6. PRESS IT FIRMLY INTO A POLVORON MOULD and turn each one out onto paper. NOTHING IS BAKED — they set by cooling and by the butter firming, and they are extremely fragile.
7. Wrap each one in tissue or cellophane, which is how they are handled rather than decoration: unwrapped they crumble to powder in a tin.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes