Surprise your guests with this rice eggnog, the star drink of Los Pasteles de Juana

The decision to undertake in the gastronomic industry was also a therapeutic turn for Juana von Buchwald. In 2020 and with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, he lost his job and also lost two very dear relatives, his father and uncle. “I had always had this fascination with food, especially with salt, because because of those contradictions in life I am not a ‘sweetie’, I never order dessert.”, recalls the 44-year-old cook with a laugh. “But a process that has always given me much more excitement and that disconnects me from everything is baking and preparing dough. (…) and when I got depressed by the situation, my family encouraged me to cook and little by little I recovered and new ideas began to emerge”.

One of his first recipes was puff pastry, which is now fermented with sourdough. (to make it much healthier) and that it distributes ready in frozen packages. “It gives it a touch of acidity, which sometimes people don’t perceive, but it’s there and it enhances the other flavors and ingredients.“, Explain. Something that works very well with meatloaf, chicken, mushrooms, caramelized onion or chard and cheese that the entrepreneur also offers when she participates in certain fairs or markets in the city, as well as in her service for parties with her Los Pasteles de Juana brand. “Puff pastry has great versatility,” she points out.

But these festive dates, Juanita also writes down some sweeter recipes.

Rice eggnog (without egg)

Ingredients:

1 liter of milk (you can replace it with coconut water)

½ of rice soaked in 1 and ½ cups of water

½ cup of sugar

½ cup of brown sugar

1 clove

1 allspice

1 cinnamon stick

1 cup of rum

Nutmeg for sprinkling (optional)

Preparation:

In a container with a lid, put half a cup of rice with a cup and a half of water, leave it in the fridge until the next day.

Boil the milk in a pot with the cloves, the scented pepper and the cinnamon sticks, set aside.

Blend the soaked rice with the same water and sift through a very fine sieve. Pour this rice starch into the milk preparation and bring to medium heat, stirring constantly until it thickens, approximately 20 minutes.

Remove preparation from heat and let cool.

When cool add the rum, refrigerate and serve cold with a sprinkle of nutmeg.

Coffee and cocoa ears

Ingredients:

500 grams of sourdough fermented puff pastry

5 tablespoons of sugar

3 tablespoons of coffee and 2 bitter cocoa powder

Preparation:

Mix the sugar with the coffee and cocoa, spread the puff pastry and give it a square shape. Spread the sugar with coffee and cocoa over the puff pastry and adhere it to the puff pastry with the rolling pin, do it on both sides. Then fold both ends together twice, refrigerate 10 minutes.

Heat the oven at 200 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove the puff pastry from the fridge and cut into slices about the width of your finger.

Place the ears on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Halfway through, at 10 minutes, remove from oven and flip with an oven spatula. Return the ears to the oven for 10 minutes.

When they are ready, place them on a wire rack and let them cool for about 15 minutes before toasting them.