Have you ever heard of frangollo canario before? This is a sweet treat and a typical Canarian dessert! It contains ingredients such as corn (maize) or millet flour, milk, butter, cinnamon, egg yolk, almonds, raisins and lemon rind.
Its taste and texture reminds me of the sweet and silky semolina pudding that my mom used to make when I was a child.
Frangollo Canario, a Canarian Dessert
You can find this sweet treat pretty often on a ‘menu del dia’ or lunch menu when you visit the Canary Islands. I haven’t seen it that often in Tenerife however but quite a lot in Gran Canaria though.
And I love it to bits because it reminds me of my childhood.
So then when I came across this small bag of frangollo millet flour in my local Mercadona supermarket I just wanted to recreate that lovely Canarian dessert myself at home.
And it turned out just fine, like I remembered it. I did give it my own little personal touch and topped the frangollo with some toasted shaved almonds and raisins.
Easy Caramel Sauce for Frangollo
I sometimes also make a quick 5 minute caramel sauce that consists of melted brown, sugar, milk, water and butter. Just combine these ingredients in small saucepan, place it over medium-low heat until the butter and brown sugar have dissolved.
Then turn the heat lower and let the brown sugar sauce simmer until you end up with a smooth and sweet sauce. That brown sugar flavor goes extremely well with the almonds in the frangollo pudding by the way.
Canary Islands
Do you love Canarian recipes?
Then you should also check out these classics: rabbit in salmorejo sauce and watercress soup! And what about papas arrugadas or wrinkly potatoes with homemade mojo?
Enjoy!
Best Canarian Frangollo Recipe
Frangollo, a typical Canarian dessert that contains millet flour, almonds, lemon zest and raisins! You will love this one...
- 1 cup whole milk (240 ml)
- 1 ½ oz caster sugar (45 g)
- 1 ½ oz frangollo (millet) flour (45 g)
- 1 oz unsalted butter (28 g)
- 1 oz almond meal (28 g)
- ½ oz raisins (14 g), chopped
- 2 thick slices lemon zest
- ground cinnamon
- 1 egg yolk
- salt
1. Pour the milk in a medium saucepan. Also add the butter, sugar, lemon zest and a pinch of salt and cinnamon.
2. Place the pan over medium-low heat until it simmers lightly. Warm the milk for about 10 minutes. Stir regularly until the sugar and butter have dissolved Let the milk and other ingredients infuse. You really want that lemon rind to flavor the milk. Then remove the lemon rind and add the frangollo flour.
3. Turn the heat to medium-high and stir well until the flour has dissolved into the milk. Quickly stir in the egg yolk.
4. Also add the chopped raisins and almond meal.
5. Give the frangollo a very good stir. Then turn the heat lower, cover the pan and let the frangollo cook and thicken for about 8 to 10 minutes or until it is nice and thick. Stir regularly, make sure the bottom doesn’t burn. Once the frangollo is thick and silky, pour it into small glasses or ramekins. Serve lukewarm or let it cool down fully. Sprinkle with toasted almonds, extra raisins and a pinch of cinnamon.
Frangollo Receta & Canarian Desserts
Do you know other Canarian desserts?
Maybe you have heard of bienmesabe, a thick sugary mixture of almonds and honey ? A few weeks ago we visited another Canarian island called La Palma. There we ate Principe Alberto pretty much every evening which is a lush chocolate and almond mousse.
Truchas canarias are also a popular treat, especially around Christmas: they are stuffed pastry pockets with lovely sweet threaded pumpkin jam in it (cabello de ángel). You might also find versions of this treat with sweet potato in it sometimes but I’ve never tried those before.
And do you know Rosquetes: fried pastry rings that are usually sprinkled with lots of icing sugar.
Gofio Canario
But one of my absolute favorite Canarian desserts is mousse de gofio.
That is a creamy mixture that contains whipped cream, eggs, sugar, almonds, cinnamon and gofio. Now gofio is a type of wheat from Tenerife. I love to make escaldón de gofio, a side dish that consists of gofio wheat flour and fish stock.
You can find small instant gofio mousse bags in supermarkets here to which you only have to add milk. There is this ice cream parlour in Adeje, Tenerife where you can also order gofio ice cream with honey, absolutely delicious!
What is millet flour?
Yay!
Millet is gluten free!
And it is also rich in fiber, iron, calcium, and B vitamins. Millet grains are small in size and round. They are just a tad bigger than quinoa. In fact while I am doing some research about millet, I just realised that my mom actually used to prepare millet when we were little.
We would call it ‘gierst’ in Flemish. And yes, I did like it back then. If I am not mistaken, we would eat cooked millet long before we knew what quinoa was.
Old Grains
The millet that my mom used to cook with was yellow. But millet can also be paler in color, and even red. It allegedly contains more nutrients than rice and wheat.
Millet it a very old grain.
It originally comes from Africa and Asia where people have been cultivating and harvesting it for centuries. It even goes as far as prehistoric times. Ancient civilizations grew it. Nowadays you find millet in Africa, Asia, India and Eastern countries as a food grain and cereal crop.
Maize flour
The millet flour that I use for this dessert however is one that contains a coarser maize flour.
It is not the pure white cornflour you might have in your pantry. I would say that it is a mixture of the white extremely fine maize flour and coarser ground corn because it is got these small yellow specs in it.
So could I use plain cornflour to make Canarian frangollo?
Yes you can.
Because if you ask me, the lightly grainy texture that the frangollo has, is mainly thanks to the ground almonds. And not the typical frangollo maize flour.
I am sure you will love it…
