Blue Cayenne

Wishing you a happy spring. 

Here in Southern California, the birds are singing and gardens are waking up. How good is that?

Here is a recipe for a wonderful cookie to celebrate spring, the Spanish Almendrado, sometimes described as an almond-lemon macaroon. It is a small cookie with a big flavor–slightly crispy on the outside with a soft lemony interior.  

Today, Almendrados are widely enjoyed in Spain. A popular Christmas treat, the cookies make use of Spain’s abundant almond crop. (Spain is the world’s second largest almond producing country. The United States is the number one world almond producer with California producing roughly eighty percent of the world’s almond crop.)

This is a cookie with an interesting history. Spanish Almendrados have been traced to the 15th Century. Some food historians believe that the Almendrado is, in fact, evidence of the Sephardic Jewish influence on Spainish cuisine. Javier Zafra, in his book Flavors of Sephardic Spain, makes the point that the Spanish Inquisition forced many Jewish Spaniards to convert to Catholicism or flee the country. The authenticity of their conversions was frequently challenged, however. In an effort to prove their Catholic bonafides, some of these “conversos” sent their daughters to convents to serve as nuns. Those young girls, Zafra argues, carried their Jewish family recipes to the convents with the flourless almond cookie, originally a Passover treat, being one of them. 

These stuffed pears are stunningly beautiful and delicious. They’re easy and quick to prepare, too. What’s not to love?

Wasn’t it Wallis Simpson (or was it Babe Paley)  who famously said that you can never been too rich or too thin?

Here is an update. You can never have too many Banana Cake recipes. We have many banana recipes here on Blue Cayenne and they’re all pretty delicious. 

https://bluecayenne.com/giving-thanks-for-carrot-banana-and-cardamom-cake

This recipe is from Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh’s cookbook Sweet. You can buy the cookbook through your local bookstore. 

The  moist Banana Cake recipe uses a lot of ripe bananas and throws in some almond flour to boot. And…wait for it!…the cake is floating in a puddle of rum caramel.

Enjoy.

Here is the recipe as we prepared it in our kitchen.