Apple Pastries

Source: Anonymous, 1920

History

These apple pastries come from La Mejor Cocinera, Recetas de Cocina, an anonymous Spanish household cookbook issued by the Madrid publishing house Editorial (Saturnino) Calleja; the earliest firmly located edition dates to about 1923. Calleja was the publisher, not the recipe's author, and the collection is credited to no individual cook. The recipe as printed is essentially the whole documentary record of this particular dish. To make about two dozen pastelillos, the book directs the cook to heat in a pan a small cup of water, a little salt, a spoonful of sugar, two of white wine, three of manteca de vaca (butter), and a stick of cinnamon; bring it almost to a boil and let it cool slightly; remove the cinnamon, then stir in flour with a wooden spoon until the dough pulls cleanly away from the pan. The dough is worked on a marble slab until very fine, rolled thin, formed into little pastries filled with apple paste (pasta de manzana), and fried in plenty of very hot butter. Beyond the cookbook's own text, the historical record does not document a specific origin, inventor, region, or social history for pastelillos con manzana. Claims of an Al-Andalus genesis or of a class meaning are not supported by any source examined here and are not carried forward.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. In a saucepan, combine the water, salt, sugar, white wine, lard, and cinnamon stick. Place over heat and bring nearly to a boil, then remove from the fire to cool slightly.
  2. Remove the cinnamon stick. Gradually add flour, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Continue stirring until the dough pulls away cleanly from the sides of the pan.
  3. Turn the dough out onto a marble slab and work it well by hand until very smooth and fine. Roll out thinly with a rolling pin and form the pastries, filling each with apple paste.
  4. Fry in very hot lard, using enough to submerge them completely, until golden.

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