Carbayones

They were quite difficult for me to make, it took me 3 times to get them right but totally worth the extra effort.

They take their name from a city in the north-west of Spain called Oviedo, people who live there are called "Carbayones" furthermore a Carbayu is how we call oak-trees in Asturias and Oviedo is Asturias' capital.

For this recipe you will need puff pastrie, I make my own one because it is not difficult to make, it tastes better and I like to make everything from scratch, the dowside is that you have to start the day before so you have to plan it in advance. I will post the puff pastrie recipe later.

You will need:

0.5Kg of puff pastrie

For the filling:

200g of grounded almonds
4 egg yolks
2 egg whites
1 lemon zest
200g of white sugar
0.5 cup of sherry liquor

Egg yolk cream

4 egg yolks
4Tsp of water
100g of white sugar

Glaze

400g of dusting sugar
100g of water

Fist of all you have to line the special molds with the puff pastrie, these molds are longer than the individual tart molds but they are less wider, I bought them the last time I was in Spain, if you can not get them, don't worry you can use the tart molds.

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC- Gas 4

For the filling you just have to mix all toguether in a bowl.

Fill the pastrie shells and put them in the oven until the pastrie is golden, if the filling is getting dark cover them with a big tin, you probably will have to do it so be ready because takes longer for the pastrie to be done  and you don't want the filling to get burn. when the puff pastrie is done take them out of the oven and allow them to cold down a little and remove them from the molds.

For the egg yolk cream you have wisk the egg yolks and put them on a side, afterwards put the sugar and the water into a pot and heat it up to hard ball so you will have to use a sugar thermometer, once you get the temperature allow it to cold down just a little and pour it over the egg yolks, do it very slowly meanwhile you wisk. when you have the cream, spread it over the top filling with a knife, making an even layer. Leave them to cold down compleatly until the surface is not sticky anymore.

Now all you have to do is the glaze and it is very simple, just mix the dusting sugar and the water and pour it over the carbayones, I changed this part of the recipe because I cannot get this part right, you are supposed to heat up the sugar to hard ball, I tried this twice and didn't work so I decided to use a simpler glaze that instead.

I know this recipe looks quite long but it was quite easy to do once I changed the glaze part, that was diving me crazy. If you have any tips for that glaze I will be happy to hear them :)

By the way I made meringues with all the egg whites that I didn't use in this recipe.

Enjoy :)