Piononos from Santa Fé

Instructions

Make egg yolk pastry cream.

1. In a small bowl mix the sugar with the cornstarch. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, add the eggs together with the water and mix well with a whisk.
3. Pour into a medium saucepan through a strainer to remove strands from the eggs.
4. Add the mixture of sugar and cornstarch, place at low heat (in a range of 1-6, put heat 2), and cook non-stop stirring with the whisk until the mixture thickens. It will take 7-10 minutes.
5. Once the mixture begins to thicken, it will do it very quickly. To guide you, the mixture will be ready in density when it has a temperature between 199º-204ºF/93º-96ºC. In the video you can see the consistency of the cream.
6. Remove from the heat and pour it into a large container. The bigger it is, the less time it will take to cool down.
7. Cover with film and let it cool completely at room temperature.

Make the sponge cake.

1. Preheat oven to 390ºF/200ºC.
2. Sift the flour along with the cornstarch. Set aside.
3. Separate the yolks from the egg whites.
4. In a medium bowl add the yolks and start beating with an electric hand mixer.
5. Add, little by little, only half of the sugar (40 g) as we beat increasing the speed progressively. We must whiten the yolks, these will increase their volume.
6. Once they are ready, add the milk and mix at low speed until it is completely integrated. Set aside.
7. Whip the egg whites together with the other half of sugar (40 g) until firm and bright peaks are obtained. Set aside.
8. In a large bowl pour the mixture of yolks and begin to add, little by little, the mixture of dry ingredients. We will integrate both elements with soft and enveloping movements, and we will not add more until both have been completely integrated.
9. Once we have added all the flour, begin to add the meringue. We'll do it the same way, in batches and with gentle, enveloping movements.
10. Place the mixture in a piping bag.

Bake.

1. To prevent the ends of the paper from lifting or moving when you pipe the batter, place a few small "points" of batter in the corners. In this way the paper will remain fixed.
2. Cut the tip of the piping bag and pipe the batter. Make a rectangle which will occupy almost the entire surface of the tray. Then fill the inside trying to exert the same pressure all the time.
3. Smooth the surface with a spatula.
4. Place in the oven for 7-8 minutes. We will observe that it acquires a light golden color for the surface. We are not interested in drying the sponge cake.
5. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely on a rack.
6. Repeat the process with the rest of the batter. This time we will have enough to make half of a sponge cake like the first we made. The cooking time and process will be the same as with the first one.

Make the syrup.

1. Pour the water  with the sugar in a saucepan. Place at medium heat and let it boil. The sugar should be completely dissolved.
2. Once it comes to the boil, turn off the heat and let it cool completely.
3. Add Bourbon to taste and mix.
4. Set aside at room temperature.

Assemble Piononos de Santa Fé.

1. Place the cake upside down on a clean working surface and carefully remove the baking paper.
2. Turn the cake, keeping the golden part up, and place it on the baking paper that we have just removed. This step has helped us to remove the cake from the paper, but we need it to remain in the same position.
3. Using a sharp knife, cut the edges. This will give a cleaner finish, as well as removing those drier parts.
4. Generously brush with the syrup over the entire surface of the sponge cake.
5. Sprinkle with powdered cinnamon to taste.
6. Spread a layer, not too thick, of yolk cream pastry. Keep in mind that if we add a lot of it, when the cake is rolled up, it will overflow.
7. Cut the cake in half, as I show you in the video. With the help of a spatula, reduce the amount of cream, leaving a very thin layer, in the part that will be the end of the roll. This small amount helps the cake to stay together.
8. Roll the way I show you in the video, we will try to exert a little tension so that there are no hollows, but not too much because the filling would come out.
9. With the help of a very sharp knife, cut the roll. In my case I have cut portions of 2 inch/5 cm long, but you can adjust them to your taste or according to the size of your cake.
10. Place each portion in a cupcake blonde.
11. Repeat the same process with the other smaller sponge cake, which corresponded in size to a half cake like the one we just assembled.
12. Once the piononos have been assembled, syrup them again. We take, one by one, and soak the sides well with the help of a silicon brush.
13. Put it back in its blonde.
    

Decorate the surface and toast.

1. Place the rest of the pastry in a piping bag with a smooth tip 1 cm in diameter.
2. Pipe a little mound on each pionono. It is a very soft and grateful cream when decorating.
   
3. Sprinkle sugar and burn with a blowtorch.
4. Serve.
   

Notes

• The yolk pastry cream has a very simple process of preparation, but requires care and patience when we are cooking. Do not stop constantly stirring the cream to prevent lumps from forming, they would spoil the final texture. In the end we must be a little more energetic when mixing.
• If we have yolk cream leftovers, we can keep it refrigerated in an airtight container for 2 days.
• The sponge cake to make the piononos has no baking powder just as we should not make it with a rising flour. It will obtain volume and sponginess thanks to the merengue and the whipped yolks.
  
• We must be careful to integrate the meringue to favor that the final result is spongy.
• We should not exceed the baking time of the sponge cake because we would obtain a dry result and it is not what we are looking for. But we don't want a raw cake either. It will be ready after 7-8 minutes or once it has a soft and beautiful golden colour.
• The outside part of the pionono will be the whitest and most porous part of the sponge cake. That is, the part that is attached to the paper. The golden part will remain in the inside, it will be where we will spread the cream.
  
• The syrup will help us to maintain the juiciness in the cakes and prevent them from drying out.
• The amount of cinnamon can be adjusted to your tastes.
• The layer of yolk cream should not be too thick, otherwise it will overflow when the cake is rolled up.
  
• If you don't have a blowtorch, don't sprinkle sugar on top. Don't even put it in the oven to brown them, this would dry out the cake a lot and the result wouldn't be good. In that case, it's almost preferable to sprinkle a little cinnamon on top and that's it.
• They can be kept refrigerated in an airtight container for 2 days.
  

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• Breakfast
• Cinnamon
• Food from Spain
• Yolk pastry cream