Casadielles Fritas - An Asturian Speciality

When in Asturia, I bought a cookery book on typical Asturian dishes. It was quite old, which I thought was a good sign when you're talking traditional dishes. No fancy nonsense, measures are more or less by intuition and the pictures (or drawings) are all very retro. It alo contains some local history, poetry and a guide to the local produce which is a help as many of the fish and sea food have the original Asturian names. I chose to make this typical dessert, Casadielles, following the traditional way of preparing the dough. Most of the ones we found in Asturias today were made with puff pastry, but here's the original method:

Ingredients:

Dough
1 cup of neutral oil
1 cup of white wine
1 egg yolk
100g butter, softened
1 tsp baking powder
As much flour as the dough can take without getting dry
Filling
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sugar
1 shot of anís liqueur*
1/2 cup water or butter
* Anís liqueur, or anisette tastes a bit like licorice. It's suggested that you can substitute it with white wine or cognac

Start by mixing the white wine, oil and salt until it starts emulsifying. Then add the baking powder, the yolk and the butter. Mix it well.

Add the flour bit by bit until you have a homogenous dough which doesn't stick to the fingers. Don't over knead the dough.

Roll out the dough thinly, using plenty of flour so it doesn't stick to the table. Place it between two pieces of cling film and place it in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Meanwhile, chop the nuts and mix it with the rest of the ingredients until you have a chunky paste.

Cut the dough into squares.

Place a teaspoon of filling on each square and roll them. Use a bit of water to make the ends stick. Squeeze the ends together so the filling doesn't come out while frying.

All shapes and sizes, evensome broken (the dough was quite hard to work with): True sign of a home cook.

Deep fry them until they are golden, turning the now and then. Let them drip off on a cooling rack. One of mine broke while frying and all the sugar and nuts started caramelising and turned the oil useless for further use. So handle with care.

The final casadielles.