Glorgeousmom's Favorite Filipino Foods: POLVORON

What is Polvoron ? – It is (Arabic: ghurayba) a type of Andalusian shortbread of Levantine origin popular in Spain and Latin America and other ex-Spanish colonies such as the Philippines during Christmas. It is made of flour, sugar, milk, and nuts. They are normally produced from September to January but are now often available year round.**

In the Philippines, a number of local variants on the traditional polvorón recipe have been made. Well known variants include polvorón with cashew and polvorón with pinipig (beaten young green rice). There's even strawberry, mocha, chocolate, cookies-and-cream, and a whole lot more.

Chocolate polvorons and chocolate covered polvorons is a product of Filipino’s ingenuity and creativity and love for chocolate and the dessert itself.


chocolate covered polvoron

BASIC POLVORON RECIPE

Preparation time: 25 – 30 minutes

Yield: 2 dozen

Ingredients:

2 cups toasted All Purpose Flour

1 1/3 cup powdered full cream

1 cup sugar

1 cup melted butter or margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla

Procedure:

1. In a skillet over medium heat, toast all purpose flour until lightly brown in color. Let cool.

2. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt butter or margarine.

3. Place toasted flour in a mixing bowl and mix with the sugar and powdered milk.

4. Mix the melted butter or margarine with the vanilla.

5. Make a well at the center of the mixed dry ingredients and pour in the butter/vanilla mixture.

6. Mix well until well-blended.

7. Mould using round or oval polvoron moulder.

8. Wrap with clear or colored plastic cellophane or Japanese paper.

VARIATIONS:

To make chocolate polvoron: add 1’2 cup chocolate powder or shredded chocolate to the dry ingredients before putting in the melted margarine and vanilla mixture.

To make nutty polvoron: add ½ cup toasted and finely chopped nuts of your choice and mix it with the dry ingredients before putting in the melted margarine and vanilla mixture.

NOTE: If you are to coat the polvoron with chocolate, refrigerate the molded polvoron for at least 30 minutes for it to harden for easy handling (polvoron tends to crumble easily making it hard to handle when coating with chocolate).

How To Mold Properly: Press polvoron mixture firmly on a ceramic or glass plate before releasing from the moulder

HOW TO COAT POLVORON IN CHOCOLATE:

Melt 250 grams semi-sweet chocolate or white chocolate with 1 tablespoon Cocoa Butter Substitute (CBS) over low fire in a double boiler. Remove from heat when melted and slightly cool the melted chocolate. Drop the refrigerated moulded polvoron into the melted chocolate. Turn upside down to coat the entire polvoron. Using a dipping tool or a fork lift coated polvoron and tap a little to remove excess chocolate. Let rest on a greaseproof paper and let the chocolate set. Drizzle with more melted chocolate if desired.