POLVORON (Pulvoron/Pulboron/Pulburon) - KULINARYA

Kulinarya Cooking Club was started by a group of Filipino foodies based in Sydney, who are passionate about Filipino culture and its colourful cuisine.  Each month, members will showcase a new dish on our food blogs that represents Filipino cuisine.  Hopefully by sharing this recipes, we hope we can spread the same passion and love for Filipino Food as we do.

Kulinarya’s theme for the month of April is POLVORON.

Polvoron (Pulvoron/Pulboron/Pulburon), is a sweet moulded treat that consist of toasted flour, margarine or butter, sugar and powdered milk. The flavours that is on offer nowadays are extensive, to name a few add on ingredients……pinipig (toasted pounded young rice), different nuts, cookies, cereals and Milo.   I’ve seen some pictures of Polvorons that are coated in white or dark chocolate, personally I haven’t tasted those kinds yet but they look delicious!

There are special moulders for Polvorons, this can be bought in any Philippines specialty shops and can be requested from love ones to be brought back from their holidays in the Philippines.  This metal handheld contraption comes in small, medium and large sizes, shapes ranges from oblong, circle, scalloped circle, square and even heart shape tins with an ejector spring handle.

This "two bites sweet" were usually wrapped in different coloured “Papel de Hapon” (Gift Tissue Paper).  In the olden days you will see frills and intricate borders on the twisted ends of the wrapped Polvorons.  Nowadays most people use coloured Cellophane because it’s more durable and margarine/butter stain resistant than the fragile Papel de Hapon.

Originally I was only planning to make just the plain basic recipe but I had the urge to ransack my pantry cupboard for extra add on ingredients.  I found pistachio nuts, Milo and mini Oreo cookies, so in the end I made 4 kinds of Polvorons.  In this Polvoron post of mine, I will show you 3 stages….assembling, moulding and wrapping, to easily show Polvoron making stage by stage.  I hope by doing this, it will give people more guidance and confidence to try this recipe!

 

Polvoron Plain Basic Recipe (approx. 1kg)

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups plain flour, toasted

1 cup (225g) butter, melted

1 1/3 cup powdered full cream milk

1 1/2 cup white sugar

 

Flavours~(for 250g polvoron mixture)

2 tbspn Milo or any chocolate drink powder

2 tbspn grounded pistachio

2 tbspn grounded Oreo cookies

 

ASSEMBLING:

Top Left: Toast the plain flour  in a large pan over medium heat, keep stirring to prevent burning and cook till light brown.    Set aside and let it cool.

Top Right & Bottom Left:  combine toasted flour, powdered milk and sugar and mix thoroughly.

Bottom Right:  Make a well on the centre of the mixture and pour in the melted cooled butter.

 

~  Combine the melted butter well with the dry ingredients.  Make sure you break the lumps while stirring the mixture.

 

 

 

 

~  Divide Polvoron mixture (approx. 1kg) into 4x portions (250g each).  Add the flavourings in 3 of the bowls and leave one for plain/original variety.  Stir the flavoured mixtures separately till well combined.

 

 

MOULDING:

Top Left:  A small oblong metal Polvoron Mould.

Bottom Left:  Press the mould in the Polvoron mixture till you have filled up the cavity, it’s okay that it is overflowing a bit.

Top Right:  On a plate, press the mould to make the mixture more compacted, gently rock it side to side to even out the bottom.

Bottom Right:  Push the ejector handle to release the moulded Polvoron, if it is still sticking to the flat metal plate, gently hold the sides of the Polvoron with your thumb and forefinger and move it a little bit, it will release itself.

~  Place all the moulded polvorons on a flat tray or cookie sheets.

 Clockwise from top left: Original, Milo, Pistachio and Cookies & Cream

 

WRAPPING:

Note:  I have a small Polvoron moulder, the size of my cut individual Cellophane wrapper was 11cmx13cm.

Top Left:  Place the moulded Polvoron on the centre of the Cellophane wrapper.

Bottom Left & Top Right:  Gather the two side of the wrapper on the top of the Polvoron, creating a snug fit and gently fold on the top centre.

Bottom Right:  Fold the ends by overlapping the sides, contour your fold to the curved ends of the Polvoron.

 

~  Fold the ends flaps toward the bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

~  Hold both flaps securely on the bottom of the Polvoron.

 

 

 

 

 

~  Seal the flaps with a piece of clear tape.

 

 

 

 

~  This recipe makes 60 pcs of Polvoron, using a small Polvoron moulder.

 

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NOTES:

• Mr. H likes the Plain and Milo flavoured Polvorons, Miss Picky Eater likes all of them and Mr Adventurous finds Polvoron kind of weird.

• Will I make Polvoron again?  Definitely a big YES! and will venture out to other different flavours.

• I bought a couple of “Papel de Hapon” (Gift Tissue Paper) packets but ended up not using them, the paper wrappers tends to get stained because of the butter in the polvoron and I didn’t like the final look.