Savor Spain

First region of Castilla y León that we visit in our series of Cooking Spain, where we will travel around the country and learning different recipes from each region, among other stuff.

We are in Ávila, one of the less populated region in Spain, surrounded by chains of mountains like Sierra de Ávila or Sierra de Gredos and with beautiful medieval towns around like Arenas de San Pedro, El Barco de Ávila, Arévalo or Ávila city itself.

Plan your visit around the capital, Ávila, and visit the City Walls, the Cathedral, the Convento de Santa Teresa and the Palacio de los Dávila.

If you´re looking on what to eat in here, don´t miss the exceptional IGP Beef from Ávila, from an autochthonous breed from this region: Avileña-Negra Ibérica (not all the Spanish beef is Rubia Gallega!) and like in Asturias, Ávila have also a special white bean called Judión de El Barco de Ávila and under a D.O protected denomination. You can find some local wine in the region under D.O Cebreros with cellars like Comando G, 7 Navas or El Reventón.

What´s typical to eat? We start, obviously, with Judiones del Barco de Ávila (Bean stew with pork but not Fabada!), Beef “Chuletón” of course, Cocido Morañego (Cocido is our cassoulet or base recipe that you can find in every region of Spain but with differences), Monda de Mombeltrán (a kind of omelette or scrambled eggs with chorizo, jamón, lard, etc) and the Yemas de Santa Teresa a typical sweet that takes name of a nun who lived in Ávila.

So for today´s recipe we´re going on the sweet side and we will be doing Yemas de Santa Teresa, a sweet made with egg yolk, sugar and water. So simple and yet delicious.

Ingredients for 4 pax:

• 6 egg yolks
• 100 gr sugar
• 50 ml water
• 100 gr icing sugar

Elaboration:

1. Crack the eggs and separate whites & yolks. Keep the whites for another recipe. Keep the yolks in a bowl.
2. In a small pot, combine water and sugar and cook the sugar syrup until it reaches 105C approx (just enough to boil and dissolve the sugar).
3. Pour the syrup, slowly, over the egg yolks and whisk. Bring back to the small pot once it´s combined and start cooking at slow heat and stirring until you get a thick texture dough an non-sticking to the pot anymore.
4. Transfer to a bowl and let it cool down and rest, covered, for 3H in the chiller.
5. With two dessert spoons, wet, take a portion of the dough and dust it over icing sugar, like a chocolate truffle, help to shape with your hands and place in muffin wraps. There you go, perfect to have with some coffee.