Pestiños

Thin dough, with opposite corners folded over each other, turns golden in the frying oil and is then coated in honey or sugar. The Spanish pestiño is a sweet made with oil infused with the aroma of anise and citrus. In Andalusia and in many other parts of Spain, people have made pestiños together on festive days and shared them. Each one is finished by hand: the corners are sealed to shape it, and after frying it is dipped in honey and the excess honey is drained off.

Flavoring the Dough with Aniseed and Citrus

The dough is made with wheat flour, oil, white wine and other ingredients. The oil is warmed with aniseed and lemon peel to take on their aroma, and is then combined with the flour. The oil spreads through the whole dough, and the fragrance of the spices remains inside even after frying.

Some recipes add the aniseed to the dough whole, while others strain the oil to remove the seeds. If the seeds are left in, their aroma spreads when you bite into the small grains; if the oil is strained, the aroma that has passed into the oil is used. Besides putting lemon peel into the oil, grated peel can also be mixed into the flour.

A recipe collection from Benamejí in the province of Córdoba includes a method in which toasted, ground sesame and cinnamon are mixed into the dough, which is fried in oil scented with citrus peel and then dusted with sugar and cinnamon. The toasty aroma of sesame is worked into the dough, while the frying oil and the finish add further, different aromas.

The sweet has also spread to Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha, and some formulas use sesame, cloves, anise liqueur and lard. A sweet called borrachuelo in the Vega area of Granada contains white wine and anise liqueur, eggs, sesame and other ingredients, and is dusted with sugar and cinnamon. Even within the same family of fried sweets, the combination of fats and flavorings changes from place to place and from household to household.

Folding and Sealing the Corners, or Wrapping the Dough Around a Finger

The dough, kneaded from flour and liquid, is rested and then rolled out thin with a rolling pin. When it is cut into squares, two opposite corners are overlapped at the center, moistened with a little water and pressed firmly. Because a weak seal opens during frying, it is necessary both to keep the thickness even and to secure the overlapped part.

The shape, like a small tube open at both ends, is different from a pouch that holds a filling. The pastries are fried until the edges and folds are cooked through and the surface is golden, and then the oil is drained off. In Karlos Arguiñano’s recipe (ingredient proportions and method), the scented oil is cooled and combined with the flour and wine, and the dough is rested for 30 minutes, cut into 5-centimeter squares and shaped.

On the other hand, a sweet made for Christmas gatherings in Jerez is shaped by wrapping a thin strip of dough around the index finger, sealing the end and then pulling the finger out. Another regional record describes rolling out small balls, pinching them in the center and turning the two sides in opposite directions before frying. It is a handmade sweet that is not limited to the folded-square shape.

Dipping in Honey or Dusting with Sugar and Cinnamon

For the honey finish, honey slightly thinned with water is warmed, the fried dough is dipped in it, and the excess honey is drained off. The surface takes on a sweet gloss, and the honey soaks into the layered pastry and softens it.

Pestiños dusted with sugar and cinnamon keep fine grains of sugar on the surface. The method presented on the Torres brothers’ program strains the anise oil, adds it to the flour, and dusts the pastries with sugar and cinnamon after frying. Whether it is wrapped in a film of honey or coated in granular sugar changes how the same fried dough turns out.

A Sweet Made and Shared Together at Holy Week and Christmas

Pestiños are a signature sweet of Holy Week and Christmas, but they are also made for local festivals and for everyday meals. At the Christmas gatherings in Jerez called zambombas, honey-coated sweets are served along with songs and drinks.

In Cádiz there is also an event called the “pestiña,” in which pestiños are handed out to many people. Members of groups such as flamenco clubs go out to buy the ingredients, knead the dough under the guidance of a member who used to make bread, and together roll it into balls, roll it out and fry it. Making a large number of sweets together and sharing them is also part of the local event.

A Sweet Named in the 16th Century and Frying Techniques Shared with North Africa

In the 16th-century “La Lozana andaluza,” the name appears as one of the dishes the protagonist learned from her grandmother. The text does not reveal the ingredient proportions or whether it had today’s shape with sealed corners.

The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy traces the word to the Latin pistus, “crushed, beaten together.” It also gives a definition of a flour dough containing egg that is fried and dipped in honey, but in some regions the pastry is made with oil and wine and no eggs, and the formula differs from household to household.

The method of frying dough in oil and using honey and spices is shared by Andalusia and North Africa. It is not known who passed on the method or when, nor is it clear whether it originated with a particular religious community. Today it is also made on Christian feast days.

Prestiños and Pristiños in Latin America

In Spanish-speaking America, Costa Rica’s prestiño is thin fried dough topped with a syrup of solid cane sugar, while the pristiño of Quito, Ecuador, is shaped into a crown-like ring and served with panela syrup. In Huánuco, Peru, rings made with egg yolk are given a white sugar glaze. Despite their similar names, they differ in shape and in how they are sweetened.

According to a naming story from the city of Huánuco, the name came from the words “Presto, niños,” with which an Italian working on the construction of the Calicanto Bridge hurried people along. The Ministry of Tourism’s inventory dates the construction of the bridge to 1879–1884 and lists egg white among the binding materials for the stones. The inventory entry for the sweet also includes a story of a woman in charge of meals for the construction work using leftover egg yolks in sweets. This is an origin story of the sweet handed down in Huánuco, linking the bridge construction with the leftover egg yolks. The white-glazed rings carry a local story of bridge building, unlike the Spanish fried sweet with overlapping corners.

Glossary