What are “pestiños” and how to make them at home

Pestiños are one of the most popular fried sweets in traditional Spanish cuisine.

It is a fried dough flavored with sesame seeds and usually in the shape of a folded handkerchief. Sometimes they are also prepared with aniseed, sugar or honey, depending on the taste of each person.

Here you can find more recipes of traditional sweets.

Pestiños, an ancestral recipe

The inheritance of the recipe for pestiños dates back to the 16th century, although some sources place it centuries earlier, in the years of Arab domination in the Peninsula.

The truth is that its great resemblance to some of the Moroccan sweets, such as the shebbakiya, makes us suspect that, indeed, they come from those lands. Both sweets share ingredients, form of preparation and time of consumption.

As they are high-calorie sweets, they were perfect to compensate for times of religious fasting, i.e. during Holy Week and Ramadan. Wherever they come from, it is certain that their consumption has spread throughout the Peninsula, although their consumption tends to be more popular in Andalusia.

Recipe of pestiños de la abuela

You only have to smell the delicious scent of sugar and oil for our memory to go back to our grandmothers’ cooking. It is a sweet that was prepared especially during Easter, although nowadays we can find it in many bakeries throughout the year.

Luckily, and not to lose the essence of tradition, pestiños are easy to prepare. They will not take much time in the kitchen and are perfect for a family snack or to surprise visitors.

As with any good recipe, there are as many variants of pestiños as there are houses that prepare them. Each family imprints its own stamp according to taste; some prefer to bathe them in syrup, others in honey, cinnamon or sugar and cinnamon.

Our recommendation is not to leave them too sweet so that they do not cloy and we can have more than one.

Ingredients for pestiños

Recipe for 10 persons

• 400 grams of flour
• 100 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 100 ml of white wine
• 100 ml orange juice
• 20 grams of aniseed
• 20 grams of sesame
• An orange peel
• One lemon peel
• 1 cinnamon stick
• Cinnamon powder

Preparation of the pestiños

1. In a casserole put the oil with the cinnamon stick and the orange and lemon peels. We leave it for about 10 minutes over low heat, so that it takes aroma.
2. Add the aniseed and continue cooking over medium heat for a few more minutes. Remove and set aside.
3. Toast the sesame seeds in a frying pan. In a large bowl, add the flour, the white wine, the salt and the flavored and strained oil. Mix well with a spoon.
4. Next, add the orange juice and toasted sesame seeds and make a compact dough.
5. On a worktop, knead by hand until the dough does not stick to your hands and remains elastic. Let it rest for about 30 minutes.
6. After this time, stretch the dough with a rolling pin and cut squares of about 5 cm. Now we fold each square taking two of the corners to the center.
7. Heat a frying pan with plenty of olive oil, and fry the pestiños. When they are golden brown, take them out and place them on kitchen paper to remove excess oil.

Although the recipe for pestiños is easy to make, you may not feel like getting into the kitchen. Don’t worry because at Casa Mira you can find some of the best traditional sweets in Madrid. Come and try them in our stores in the center of the capital, or you can also find them in our online store.