Vegan angel’s hair cookies

Angel’s hair (Cabello de ángel) is a traditional Spanish preserve, made with fig-leave gourd (cidra or black seed squash), a kind of squash with stringy flesh. The jam is often flavored with cinnamon and/or lemon peel, and used mainly to fill all kind of pastries. It can also be used to spread on toast, though.

Since cidra is rather hard to find around here, I used spaghetti squash, since the flesh also turns into strings when cooked. Flavor wise there isn’t much difference, and with the touch of cinnamon, it brings memories from home.

Traditionally the cookies are made with lard, which obviously is not included in my diet. So I modified the traditional recipe to be vegan by using coconut oil.

Angel’s hair

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 + 40 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings: 4 300 gr jars

Ingredients

• 1 spaghetti squash (about 1.5 kg with seeds and skin)
• 250-300 gr sugar per 1 kg of cooked squash flesh (yes, you’ll have to do some math to cook this recipe)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon per 1 kg cooked squash flesh
• 100 ml water per 1 kg cooked squash flesh

Instructions

1. Cut the squash in half, and remove the seeds. Cut into smaller pieces (each half into 6-8 pieces).
2. Put the squash pieces in a wide pan with lid, add enough water to cover about half through.
3. Bring pan to a boil, lower heat so it’s simmering and cook for 20 minutes, until squash is soft.
4. Drain squash, let cool enough to handle.
5. With a fork, remove flesh from skin, creating threads by scraping it with the tines.
6. Weight the flesh of the squash, and calculate how much sugar, water and cinnamon is required.
7. Put scrapped flesh, sugar, water & cinnamon in the same wide bottomed pan, stir to combine, and bring to a low simmer.
8. Simmer, stirring every 5-10 minutes so it doesn’t burn, for 30-40 minutes, until it reaches a light brown color and a jammy consistency.
9. Meanwhile, sterilize 3-4 pots and their lids.
10. Once the jam is ready, fill the pots until the neck of the jar, close tightly with the lids, and let cool off.

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Angel’s hair cookies

Prep time: 25 minutes
Baking time: 20 minutes
Cooling time: 15 minutes
Total time: 1 hour
Servings: 16 cookies

Ingredients

• 150 gr coconut oil
• 150 gr (cane) sugar
• 100 ml (blood) orange juice
• 380 gr all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Cabello de ángel (see above)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 220°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. In the bowl of a kitchen mixer, put coconut oil, sugar, juice, flour, baking soda and salt.
3. With the paddle attachment, mix on low until a crumbly dough is formed.
4. Pour crumbs onto a clean surface, gather with your hands, and knead until a ball of dough is formed, about 1 minute.
5. Divide dough in two equal parts.
6. Roll one half to about 4 mm thickness. Cut 16 7 cm rounds, and place on lined baking tray.
7. Spoon about 1 tsp of jam onto the middle of each round.
8. Roll the second half of the dough to 4 mm thickness, and cut another 16 rounds (7 cm diameter). Place each circle on top of a jam-topped circle, press the edges together to seal. Prick a small hole in the middle of each cookie.
9. Bake cookies 20 minutes in preheated oven, rotating half way through to obtain even browning.
10. Remove cookies from oven, move to a cooling tray and let cool at least 10 minutes before enjoying.