Panellets de Boniato, Catalan Sweet Potato Almond Bites
Panellets are the small almond sweets Catalans eat around All Saints' Day, and the most traditional ones lean on a little cooked sweet potato, boniato, to soften the almond paste. This version makes the sweet potato the point rather than a footnote, so the bites hold together with no sugar and no egg. Roasted until its sugars caramelize, the sweet potato blends with ground almonds and a spoonful of date paste into a dough you can roll in your hands. Some get rolled in chopped almonds and some in sesame, the two classic coatings, and a brush of aquafaba stands in for the egg wash that makes them brown. They bake in a quarter of an hour and are a whole-food fat and fruit sweet, meant to be eaten a couple at a time.
Ingredients
- 3/4 lb Sweet potatoes, roasted and mashed
- 1 1/2 cups Almond flour
- 6 wholes Medjool dates, pitted
- 1/2 cup Almonds, chopped
- 2 tbsp Sesame seeds
- 1 whole Lemons, zest only
- 2 tbsp Aquafaba
Method
- Blend the dates with 2 tablespoons (30 ml) hot water into a smooth paste. In the original these little marzipans are bound with sugar and egg yolk; here date paste both sweetens and helps the dough hold together, and the roasted sweet potato carries its own natural sugars.
- In a bowl, mash the roasted sweet potato and mix it with the almond flour, date paste, and lemon zest into a stiff, moldable dough. If it feels sticky, work in a spoonful more almond flour; if it cracks, a teaspoon of water. Chill it for 15 minutes so it firms up and rolls cleanly.
- Roll the dough into balls about the size of a walnut. Boniato panellets are a touch softer than the pure almond kind, which makes them easy to shape by hand.
- Brush each ball with a little aquafaba, then roll half in the chopped almonds and half in the sesame seeds, pressing so they stick. The aquafaba, the liquid from a can of chickpeas, is the eggless glue that also helps the coating brown.
- Bake on a parchment-lined tray at 400 F (205 C) until the nuts are toasted and the tops are golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool them fully before moving them, since they set as they cool. They keep several days in a tin.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 190 calories, 5 g protein, 4 g fiber, 15 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
