Christmas Dreams

Because crafting also happens in the kitchen, today's post is about cooking.

Back in the days, before the so-called globalization, people used to live of what they grew in their land. I still remember the huge pumpkins that my grandpa' so proudly grew in his farm and lovingly put some aside for when my parents and I would come for a visit. Grandma' would make the most out of the farm produce and cook delicious recipes on her firewood stove, like the delicious pumpkin maize porridge. On Christmas, pumpkin would also be on the table as a scrumptious traditional sweet, the "Christmas Dreams", small puffy balls of sweet orange coloured dough, that you will not be able to resist.

For 'tis the time for giving and because these sweets bring back so many memories, I want to share this recipe with you, the same way my mom so willingly shared it with me on the phone last night.

Christmas Dreams
Traditional Portuguese recipe

Ingredients:
1 kg of skinless and boiled pumpkin
0.4 L of the pumpkin boiling water
50 g margarine or butter
350 g all purpose wheat flour
9 eggs
orange zest
1 teaspoon baking powder
sugar
ground cinnamon

Preparation:

Peel the pumpkin, cut it in squares and boil it in enough water to cover it until it becomes nice and soft. Reserve some of this water for later. Mash the pumpkin. Because it should be really soft, my grandma' used to do this with her hands and I believe that's what gave it that special flavour. So please, feel free to do so. In another pan, put the pumpkin boiling water, the margarine and a pinch of salt, add the mashed pumpkin and let it simmer. Start adding the flour little by little, incorporate the baking powder and stir well until it forms an even dough. In a plastic bowl, add the eggs to the dough, one by one, and the orange zest and mix well (here come granny's hands again!). You should now have a fluffy batter but not runny. Fry tablespoons of the batter in hot oil until golden brown. Run the puffy balls through a mix of sugar and cinnamon and let it cool.

If it looks something like this...

Congratulations! You've done it!

I've tried to write down the recipe as simple and understandable as I could. But if for some reason you have a doubt, please do not hesitate to contact me. I'll be very happy to help!

Enjoy! :)