Red Bean and Black Sesame Polvoron

Polvoron is a shortbread made primarily with flour, milk and sugar. It originates from Spain, “polvo” being the word for powder or dust. The Philippines and Mexico were both colonies of Spain for hundreds of years, and so, it’s not surprising that this tradition has been integrated into our cuisine.

Making polvoron brings me back to fourth grade, where we sat around our home economics teacher, as she toasts the flour. We eagerly waited in our seats as the aroma filled our classroom, and got a chance to use a mold to make our own to wrap, take home, and enjoy. For my ten year old self, it was a lesson in patience. In the home kitchen, it can also be a lesson for creativity, collaboration, safety, and so much more.

Typical flavors for polvoron in the Philippines are: cashews, peanuts, pinipig (toasted rice), and cookies and cream (made with crushed Oreos). Lately, more flavors have shown up in the market as they have become commercially available, with the likes of: pandan, ube, mango, and even plain ones covered in chocolate.

I wanted to make a fusion of Chinese flavors in mine: red bean and black sesame. Black sesame can be found already ground, but if you can’t find them, you can also pulverize whole black sesame in a food processor. For the red beans, it’s a bit more of a process. First, I cook it according to package instructions, then I drain all the liquid. Afterwards I arrange them on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven until crunchy. When the beans cool, pulverize them in a food processor, as you would whole black sesames. It’s absolutely worth the work, and any extra red adzuki beans make for a fantastic crust! More on that later.

Recipes for polvoron require you to use a polvoron mold. You simply won’t be able to shape it with just your fingers. I experimented and used a small mooncake mold (the ones with springs) to shape them and they worked great. Hooray for dual purpose kitchen gear! Other ways I’ve heard people mold polvoron are: using a mason jar lid, using cookie cutters, etc. The kitchen is the best place to (as Miss Frizzle would put it…) “Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!”

These polovon cookies, when wrapped individually in sheets of gift wrapping paper make for pretty holiday presents. Not to mention, they taste great, and yield quite a bit without having to fire up your oven!

Red Bean and Black Sesame Polvoron

Black Sesame Polvoron

Yield: 30 one inch polvoron

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup full cream milk

½ cup toasted sugar*

½ cup of butter, melted

¼ cup ground black sesame

Equipment: 1 small mooncake mold

Instructions:

In a skillet, toast flour until color turns a shade of cream. Set aside to cool.

In a bowl, combine all dry ingredients well.

Blend in butter and stir until completely incorporated.

Fill mooncake mold, press and freeze for 5-10 minutes.

Individually wrap with tissue paper, if desired.

*NOTE: feel free to swap toasted sugar with cane sugar. To make toasted sugar, pour cane sugar in a baking sheet and bake in the center rack of your oven for 5 hours at 300 degrees fahrenheit. Check every hour and sift if needed.

Red Bean Polvoron