Thursday, August 20, 2009

Polvoron, the Recipe

I have making a lot of polvoron lately, and it's because of GoatSpawn's sleep.

GoatSpawn is a wonderful eater but impossible to put to sleep, so anything I do in the evenings has to be quiet and easily interrupted since inevitably one of us will say, "Is that her?" and it always is.

Then, my mom left a book of Filipino lullabies here, and when I glanced at the title, I had to really think a while before I remembered thatt "Antukin" means "sleep". Yikes! I need me something Filipino, stat!

And so ... polvoron.

I've posted about how to make it before, but then I realized I didn't include the actual recipe, probably because I do keep changing the ingredient ratios every time I make it, to suit my whims. Being a simple recipe with no baking, polvoron is very amenable to adjustment. But my basic recipe is thus:

Polvoron

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup powdered milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter or margarine

  1. Toast the flour, stirring frequently, over medium heat until light brown. There's no exact stopping point - just when it seems toasted. If it start to smoke, you're burning it, so turn down the heat.
  2. Remove from heat and let cool.
  3. Add the milk and sugar.
  4. Melt the butter or margarine, and mix it in slowly, to avoid big clumps. You want the consistency and texture of damp sand.
  5. Form cakes by packing the mixture very, very firmly with the back of spoon (I broke a wooden spoon doing this) into a shaper. A polvoron mold is best, because you can press it out easily, but a small scoop, a measuring spoon, or candy molds also work. And taste it! Especially before you form too many cakes. If it doesn't taste how you want it to taste, you can always mash it back up and add more of whatever ingredient it needs.
  6. Put them in the fridge or the freezer for at least 20 minutes or until the polvoron is firmer. This hardens the butter to make it easier to wrap.
  7. Wrap with tissue or wax paper. Store in the fridge, especially if you used butter, so that they keep their shape.
Enjoy!

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:55 PM

    wouldn't a half pound of butter be 2 sticks?

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you're in Cleveland, there's lots of Filipinos there. Well, not as many as California, but I was born and bred in Cleveland within the Filipino community. The PASO (Philippine American Society of Ohio) Filipino center is in Broadview Heights.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4:22 AM

    I have tried this food, very nice. Friend, I have also created some new recipes on http://www.eatyourveggie.com. Please check out and make comment on my recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous8:47 PM

    polvoron is my favorite treat. we are having a heritage project and we have to make a recipe it will be so yummy:P

    ReplyDelete
  5. . Indeed, it has been generally utilized far and wide and there are sure measurements to an institutionalized formula that we should take after.

    ReplyDelete