Halloween (or Castanyada, or Tots Sants in Catalan) has its origins in the pagan religions practised in Europe for millenia before the arrival of Christianism. These were dates to honour the ancestors and prepare for winter. People would deep clean their houses and decorate them with candles, lamps and carved parsnips or pumpkins. Children would knock at their neighbours houses and get sweet treats in exchange for a song or solving a riddle. People would cast lots, read the future and attempt to contact their dead. Cemeteries were clean and redecorated and preparations were made to ensure people had enough food to survive the winter.
Across Europe it was common to leave a plate of food at the table for the ancestors to dine with the family. Over time people started bringing these food offerings to the cemeteries and this is how Catalans came to bring (and eat) panellets at the tombs of their deceased. These little marzipan cakes would have been previously blessed by a priest, tradition lost now that Catalan society is much more secular. Today, while people may bring flowers to the cemeteries, they will most likely skip the church's service and eat the panellets at home. In fact, panellets are often made at home. They're pretty simple little cakes easy and fun to make at home with children.
The ingredients we'll need are:
1 medium size sweet potato
250g of ground almonds
200g of caster sugar
2 eggs
lemon zest
100g of pine nuts/chopped almonds
7-8 spoons of dissecated coconut aprox.
50-60g of cocoa powder aprox.
icing sugar
as many bowls as flavours we want
The measure given above will make around 20 panellets of 3-4 different flavours.
Firstly, we will prepare the marzipan by baking the sweet potato until soft. We'll let it cool down a bit, peel it and mash it with a fork. Then we'll add the sugar and the lemon zest and mix all ingredients with our fork. When the sugar is incorporated, slowly, slowly, we add the ground almonds and 1 egg. We'll work the mixture with our hands and let it rest covered in cling film inside the fridge overnight (or at least 4 hours).
Next day we will divide the marzipan in 3 parts to make panellets of different flavours and we'll separate the yolk from the whites of the 2nd egg into 2 different bowls/containers and beat them.
For the pine nuts/almonds panellets we will portion our marzipan and shape little balls an inch or so wide. We'll wash them in the egg white and coat them in the nuts. Before baking, we'll brush them with the egg yolk.
For the coconut panellets we'll mix the marzipan with the coconut, shape it into balls or cones, wash them in the egg white and coat them with more coconut.
For the chocolate panellets we'll mix the marzipan with the cocoa powder, shape it into balls and coat in icing sugar for a dusty finish.
Lastly, we will bake the panellets at 200 Celsius for 10 minutes. Optionally, we can decorate them too.
This panellet is slightly bigger than the others, I froze some nutella in an ice tray and coated with the marzipan. It turned very well and it looks perfect with a little marshamallow on top.
