Hair Recipe
I do not know if it has also happened to you but until recently for me to hear about the angel hair it was everything a mystery. Accustomed to seeing it ready-made everywhere but not the fruit and with that particular name that is undoubtedly due to its appearance, how surprised I was to learn that it was made with a specific type of pumpkin.
In this recipe I teach how to prepare homemade pumpkin angel hair, a sweet what results exquisite. It is also called sweet or angel hair jam and is made with cider squash (below you can see how it is in the photographs).
The process is simple but a bit slow although the good thing is that you can prepare a large quantity at once and, thanks to the amount of sugar it contains, it keeps phenomenal and that is why I only prepare it once a year. Saved in preserves It is ideal as a gift and in terms of its use, I emphasize above all that it serves as a filling for infinity of pastry preparations such as cakes, empanadas, puff pastries, cakes… I also encourage you to use it to accompany salty preparations as is usually done with the caramelized onion or the quince candyfor example with cheeses or pâtés.
Some of those recipes in which the sweet touch is given by the angel hair could be the crispy brie cheese and filo pastry with homemade quince jamthe fresh cheese with honey and walnuts (mel i mató)these toast with Camerano cheese and fresh figs seasoned or substitute caramelized onion for these homemade goat cheese burgers. It could also be a fantastic accompaniment to some toast with homemade fresh cheese or put a sweet touch on these walnut and basil blinis with cottage cheese and dried tomato.
It also goes great with desserts, for example crowning this delicious Baked Cheesecake or a classic panna cotta or italian panna cottaand you can always go through our section of homemade biscuits or of tarts because surely you can think of many ways to use it.
Ingredients to prepare homemade pumpkin angel hair, an exquisite sweet:
- Citron pumpkin. One like the one I have used weighs between 2 and 3 kg, and it is ideal to fit well in a pot of up to 8 liters.
- Sugar, half the weight of pulp that we get from the pumpkin.
- 1/2 lemon.
Preparation, how to make the homemade pumpkin angel hair recipe, an exquisite sweet:
- Use a large pot and cover halfway with Water. Put it on high heat so that it comes to a boil.
- When opening the pumpkin the difficulty will depend a lot on their point of maturation, since there are some that with a knife and some force can be opened without problems when they are more mature, and others it is necessary to use a hammer or there are even those who throw them against the ground to get open them. In my case with the knife and a strong hand it has been enough.
- This is the cider horse
- The ideal is to cut it in half and then each half into 4 parts.
- Go throwing the pieces of pumpkin to the pot with the boiling water. If you see that it overflows too much Water remove a little, and the other way around if you need to pour it even if it’s cold, in a short time it will boil again.
- We start to cook the pumpkin
- When the pumpkin is inside the pot and the water is boiling, lower the heat a little so that it is at medium temperature and continue boiling and cook the pumpkin until it is tender. If it’s a ripe pumpkin about 20-30 minutes will be enough, and if it’s harder you’ll need about 40 minutes. To check if it is tender, take a piece with tweezers and try to fold the skin, you will notice that it is no longer hard
- We already have the tender pumpkin
- Take out the pieces and leave them in a colander.
- Wait for it to cool down before you can handle it and remove the nuggets.
- With a soup spoon separate the pulp (the inside of the pumpkin) from the skin and leave the pulp in a container.
- We separate the pulp from the skin of the pumpkin
- weighs the pulp, transfer it to a pot and add half its weight in sugar. In my case it has weighed 1060 gr and I have added 530 gr of sugar.
- Grate the skin medium lemon with a fine grater and add it to the pot together with the juice of that half lemon, trying not to drop bones.
- Combine the pumpkin pulp, sugar and lemon in a saucepan.
- cook the angel hair over low heat for at least an hour, turning occasionally. Here you can see what it looks like 5 minutes into cooking, when the sugar dissolves.
- We start cooking the angel hair
- In my case it took about 80 minutes since the fire was very low. It will be ready when you see that its texture already has the characteristic threads and it has a darker, caramelized color.
- We already have the homemade angel hair ready
- Freshly made and hot you can store it in a can, or wait for it to cool down and keep it in the fridge or frozen.
Time: 2-3 hours
Difficulty: easy
Serve and taste:
As soon as it cools down, it is ready to be used. For keep it you can preserve it in jars, store it in a container in the fridge or even freeze it. I encourage you to take advantage of the pumpkin season and make angel hair for the whole year by making delicious preserves for yourself and also to give away.
When it’s freshly made, I can’t resist eating a little bit like that, by the spoonful, but the truth is that it’s a fantastic stuffing of all kinds of sweets and I especially like it in empanadillas, puff pastry empanadas, in ensaimadas or in cakes. Its delicious and delicate sweet taste and that texture that well remembers some golden hair make it an elaboration authentic… scandal!
Variations of the homemade pumpkin angel hair recipe, an exquisite sweet:
The preparation is always the same, although in each house they may have a slightly different step by step, but what you can do is flavor it. You can include grated orangea stick of cinnamon or a pod of vanilla to give it a different touch.
Tips:
If you prepare a large quantity at once you can save it in various containers fridge or vacuum-packed to be consumed or even given as a gift.
Take good care of angel hair when you have reached the time to cook with the sugar, since if you have the heat a little high, it may be almost ready and you must make sure that it does not burn or stick to the bottom of the pot.