Saturday, October 15, 2011

Dulce de leche pionono


Recently, I went for Sunday lunch at E & T's house.  It was a belated birthday celebration for all of us.  T made some delicious vegetarian quiches for us to enjoy, and then there was dessert - my favourite course!

E's mum is Peruvian and makes a dessert cake called dulce de leche pionono.  I had never heard of such a thing, but when E mentioned it, my curiosity was piqued, and a quick Google search revealed a recipe for it here.  Pionono is basically a jelly roll cake without the jelly that can be filled with sweet or savoury fillings.

Be careful when making the cake component - it sticks chronically to everything and gave me quite a few heachaches, even when I used baking paper and icing sugar to try and prevent it from sticking.  Also, be careful when making the dulce de leche to ensure that you don't burn it - I did get small chewy overcooked bits through my dulce de leche, but ultimately it didn't affect the taste. I used reduced fat condensed milk and evaporated milk, which didn't seem to affect the taste of the final product.

E's mum just uses dulce de leche to fill her pionono, but my recipe called for mixing the dulce de leche with whipped cream:



Where I came unstuck is that I did not whip my cream quite enough, so I ended up with a rather flat pionono: 




It tasted delicious though!  The cake was light and fluffy, and the filling satisfyingly sweet. Best of all, I had leftover dulce de leche to eat straight from the pot.

I left off the caramel frosting - I thought too much sweetness would be overwhelming.

E made me a cake too - a vanilla cake swirled with blackberry jam and topped with canned frosting that tasted like white chocolate straight from the fridge: 



What a brilliant afternoon it was - good company, good food, and lots of cake!  And I finally got the chance to satisfy my curiosity by making a pionono (albeit slightly misshapen) - and it was so worth it.

16 comments:

  1. What a yummy looking rolled cake!

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  2. 2 fabulous cakes! I'd have to try a slice of each :)

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  3. The pionono looks fantastic! I have to smile because in Puerto Rico we call pionono something completely different: a disk of seasoned ground beef or crabmeat with fried ripe plantain around it.

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  4. Well, now you've got me curious about a piono now! I want to try that cake - it looks so good and who doesn't love dulce de leche?!

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  5. Any afternoon that contains plenty of cake simply must be a good one - and any cake with dulce-de-leche will necessarily be especially good. I love that stuff and tend to treat it like condensed milk - best eaten straight with a spoon.

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  6. This looks SOOO delicious. Dulce de leche mixed with anything can't be bad!

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  7. anything with dulce de leche gets my vote - and this sounds like a true labour of love - glad it tasted as good as you hoped

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  8. I wouldn't know which one to eat first - they both look fab!

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  9. Too bad about the headaches with the cake, but the finished product looks and sounds delicious!

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  10. Adriana, how interesting - I am now fascinated by the alternative pionono!

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  11. I tink I've had something like this and it is really good! I like the idea of mixing the filling with whipped cream too :)

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  12. What a great dessert. Thanks for sharing. My son-in-law would love this... he lived in Argentina for two years and LOVES dulce de leche anything. This would be a great birthday cake for him.

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  13. I've never heard of pionono, but am very intrigued! Any cake filled with cream and dulce de leche is bound to be delicious, and I think I need to make one, as soon as I deal with all the pumpkins in my living room.
    :)

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  14. Very interesting - I am currently experimenting with dulce de leche too. Love the idea of it mixed with whipped cream!

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  15. I tink I've had something like this and it is really good! I like the idea of mixing the filling with whipped cream too :)

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