Inspired by Moorish baking traditions, and used by the inquisition to expose “closet Muslims” and questionable converts. Get to know Polvorónes – one of the most popular Spanish Christmas treats, where fats and the men of the Spanish Inquisition play a central role. Take in some history and try our polvorónes recipe yourself.
Different Spanish regions have different Christmas cake traditions. This is easy to observe at any Spanish airport during Christmas. There you will see Spaniards arriving from different parts of the country with beautiful cake boxes that have very different designs and contents. Only a few types of cookies can be said to be made nationwide – one of them is the polvorón.
The name is derived from the word polvo which means powder or dust. And as the word indicates, the polvorón is sprinkled with sifted powdered sugar or cinnamon, sometimes both. The golden cookies are delicate, and break easily. That’s the reason why they are sold individually, wrapped in paper. In well-stocked shops, you can even buy specialty paper for wrapping homemade polvorónes.
There are a number of varieties of this delicacy, but in its basic form it contains only four ingredients: almonds, wheat flour, sugar and fat. A common variety, also uses cinnamon, but you can also find polvorónes flavored with grated lemon peel, anise seeds, cocoa, coconut, sesame seeds or orange peel.
The processing of the flour and almonds gives the polvorónes their characteristic taste, but more on that a little later. Almonds, sugar and cinnamon are all goods that found their way to Spain with the help of the Muslim Moors.
Today, Spain is one of the world’s largest producers of almonds, but the almond tree originally came from areas around the eastern Mediterranean, from present-day Syria and Turkey and eastwards to areas that now are part of India and Pakistan. The Moors made sure that the Spaniards became acquainted with almonds and almond cultivation. They also introduced sugar cane to the Iberian Peninsula – a plant the Spaniards would later carry with them to the “new world.” Cinnamon originates from East Asia, but has been known in Egypt and elsewhere in North Africa for at least 4000 years and was therefore a natural part of Moorish cuisine.
The Moors in Spain also baked an early type of cake that is very reminiscent of today’s polvorónes. But where the Spanish variant uses lard, the Moors used milk and olive oil.
A bold religious feud?
Reconquista is the term used to describe the nearly 800-year-long recapture of the Iberian Peninsula by Christian rulers. For hundreds of years prior to the recapture, much of what is today Spain and Portugal had been ruled by the Moors. Their influence was particularly great and long-lasting in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. In some Spanish cities, there were also significant Jewish populations.
The Reconquista is considered complete in 1492 when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella arranged for the last Muslim outpost, Granada, to be brought under Christian rule. Already the same year, came the so-called Alhambra decree expelling all Jews who did not want to convert to Christianity. And it was followed by a series of similar ordinances that required Muslims in Spain to convert. Many chose to leave the Iberian Peninsula, some were killed, but the group of people who converted to Christianity, the so-called conversos, was also large.
In the late 15th century, Spain was an association of small empires, each with its own administration. King Ferdinand saw religion as a tool suitable for gaining control and to unite the population. He demanded that the pope in Rome establish an inquisition that the king could use to overcome both those who refused to be baptized and those who had converted to Christianity as a cover.
The pope actually opposed the king’s demand for a Spanish Inquisition, but Ferdinand insisted and lobbied for it intensely. Among other things, he threatened that soldiers would not be made available to the papacy if he did not get approval for his claim. In 1478 the pope finally gave in, and a separate Spanish inquisition saw the light of day.
And the Inquisition did not waste any time getting to work, weeding out what was seen as fifth colonists. Food was a rather cunning but easy way to expose unbelievers. And this is where the Spanish pig comes into the picture, as strange as it may sound.
Neither Jews nor Muslims eat pork or products made from pigs if they are to follow the rules of their religions. Hence the Inquisition issued an official order to the whole of Spain that the popular cakes polvorónes should henceforth only be baked with lard. Families and individuals who baked the cakes with olive oil and milk or butter were to be viewed with the greatest suspicion and reported to the authorities. This is how the polvorón became part of what can safely be called a cultural struggle.
The Spanish Inquisition ended in 1834. Today you can safely choose whichever version of polvorónes you want to bake or eat. The cakes you buy in stores in Spain usually contain lard, but you can also find them baked with vegetable fat. If you prefer the butter taste, you can replace the lard in the recipe below with room temperature butter.
How to make polvorónes
Polvorónes are popular Christmas cakes throughout Spain, but you can also find them in other parts of the world with Spanish influence. For instance, Spanish explorers and colonists brought the cakes to Latin America and the Philippines.
Below you will find a recipe for traditional polvorónes which you can change according to your taste and liking.
⦁ Toast 120 g almond flour (or finely chopped / ground almonds) on low heat in a dry frying pan until light golden brown.
⦁ Toast 250 g wheat flour in a dry pan until light golden. Use low heat. The flour clumps a little, that’s how it should be.
(Alternatively, you can toast wheat flour and almond flour, separately, in the oven at about 120 degrees for about 15 minutes, but make sure the color does not get too dark.)
⦁ Whip 250 g of lard (or butter) at room temperature into a fluffy mixture together with
⦁ 250 g of sugar
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This is what you do:
Sift the toasted wheat flour into the lard / butter mixture together with 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Mix in the almond flour and stir until the mass is smooth, but no more.
Quickly shape the dough into a sausage shape with a diameter of about 5 cm. Wrap it all in a plastic bag and let the dough rest for at least 1 hour in the fridge.
When the dough is really cold and therefore firmer, cut it into slices about 2 cm thick (some use thicker slices, others thinner – it’s a matter of taste). Place the dough slices on a plate lined with baking paper and bake at 175 degrees for approx. 15 minutes. The cakes should be golden yellow, not brown.
Let your polvorónes cool completely before moving them from the baking tray. They are fragile and will break easily.
When they are cold, sift the confectionary (powdered) sugar or a mixture of confectionary (powdered) sugar and cinnamon over. A fine sift / small tea strainer is useful. Wrap them in polvorónes paper or wax paper intended for food. If you then put them in a cake tin / cake box, they will last a long time.
If you want to experiment with different flavors, try adding one or more of these ingredients to this basic dough. For instance: 2-3 tablespoons cocoa; 40 g coconut; the cracked, yellow peel of a lemon; 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar or grated peel of an orange. Another variation is to sprinkle sesame or poppy seeds over the cakes.
Whether you buy polvorónes or make your own, you can offer traditional baking and a fun story for Christmas coffee.
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