Silvanas

Silvanas

Meringue Wafer:

• 1/2 cup egg whites
• 1 tsp. cream of tartar
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour , sifted
• 1/2 cup cashew nuts, finely ground and sifted

Icing:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened at room temp.
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/8 cup milk

Coating:

• 1 3/4 cups cashew nuts, finely ground + 1/4 cup bread crumbs  or
• 1 3/4 cups cake crumbs + 1/4 cup cashew nuts, finely ground

 Cooking Instructions

• Preheat oven to 300F. Grease and flour cookie sheet or use a good quality wax paper.
• Grind cashew nuts finely in a food processor with all-purpose flour. But if you don’t have you can do it manually with mortar and pestle as what I did. Sieve crushed cashew nuts and set aside. Sift all-purpose flour in a separate bowl and set aside as well.
• Combine egg whites and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl with wire whip attachment. Mix at medium speed for 1 minute while gradually adding the caster sugar. Switch the speed and add the almond extract, continue beating the egg whites until stiff peaks are formed and glossy.
• Fold in flour and cashew nuts together over a sieve and gradually cut and fold until well blended. Put mixture into piping bag and snip the end with a scissor.
• Pipe meringue onto the prepared cookie sheet lined with wax paper. To yield the same size of meringue wafer make a circle pattern using any size of round shape you got and trace it on the wax paper for an even outline. In this procedure I used a 2 inch cookie cutter, the size is just perfect for me.
• Pipe meringue evenly onto the sheet, this recipe makes 24 wafers; yields a dozen of decadent sylvana. Bake the meringue in the center of the oven for 25 minutes or until lightly brown.
• Let it cool completely before transferring to a wire rack to prevent the wafers from cracking. Meringue wafers are fragile when it’s hot and very easy to peel off when it’s completely cooled.
• Prepare icing while waiting for the meringue wafer to cool down. Dissolve sugar in milk, then cream butter until pale in color. Add sugar-milk solution slowly while beating continuously until smooth.
• Chill the butter mixture while preparing for the coating mixture. In a bowl crumble leftover slice of sponge cake, mamon or any plain yellow cake.  In this recipe I’m using one of my Torta Cake Cebuano that I made earlier. Crumble the cake finely and add the finely ground cashew nuts and mix well, then set aside.
• To prepare the other coating mixture mix finely ground cashew nuts and add the bread crumbs in a separate bowl and mix well, then set aside. If you don’t have bread crumbs that would be fine ‘coz it’s just an extender (cashews are expensive why not add a cheaper extender, that doesn’t compromise the taste anyway).

To assemble the Sylvanas : Stir chilled butter lightly to soften and using a brush, brush icing on a meringue wafer and sandwich with another meringue wafer. Hence, that most of  Sylvanas recipe procedures I’ve seen are sandwiched in reverse “flat-side-out”. I don’t really know why it has to be done like that but I guess to have a crunchy Sylvanas exterior and a soft and gooey interior. But I find it too buttery ‘coz I have to fill the center with lots of butter to make a flat and even sides.

source:  pinoyrecipe.net

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