Andalusian Sweet Porridge with Cinnamon: Step-by-step Recipe

Ingredients

🥛 600 ml whole milk

🍬 150 g sugar

🍋 1 lemon

🌿 1 cinnamon stick

🌰 3 g of anise seeds

🌾 50 g of soft wheat flour for baking

🍞 4 slices of bread

🫒 Mild extra virgin olive oil

🍂 Ground cinnamon

Sweet porridge is a traditional dish from Córdoba and Jaén on All Saints ‘ Day , a day that is used to go to the countryside and eat roasted lamb chops or blood sausages on the fire. 

Afterwards, using the embers from the embers, chestnuts are roasted and this porridge is prepared for a snack . In Cádiz and Seville it is known as “ Poleás “, in Almería it is called “ Talvinas “ and in Toledo, Cuenca and Ávila it is called “ Puches “ although it does not usually contain cinnamon.

Holidays such as All Saints’ Day allow us to recover culinary traditions. Sweet porridge is an example of what was once the cuisine of the poor, the humble cuisine. An energetic dessert made with basic ingredients, but no less delicious than many other more sophisticated and expensive ones.

I serve them with cinnamon , but another way of doing it (very widespread) is to add a splash of cane honey. Choosing one or the other option only depends on each person’s taste.

How to make an Homemade Andalusian Sweet Porridge

Preparation of porridge base

1. The first thing we have to do is heat the milk together with the cinnamon stick, lemon peel and aniseed. When it starts to boil, we turn off the heat and let it infuse for 30 minutes. This way we get a much more flavorful milk and a richer porridge.
2. Meanwhile, cut the bread slices into 1 x 1 cm cubes, discarding the crust. Heat plenty of extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan and fry the bread cubes over a medium heat until golden. Remove, draining the oil well, and leave to cool on a plate with absorbent paper.
3. After the milk has rested, remove the cinnamon stick and the lemon peel. Strain to remove the aniseed as well.

Cooking and presentation

1. Divide the milk into two halves. Pour one of them back into the saucepan and add 50 ml of extra virgin olive oil and the sugar. Heat while stirring until the sugar dissolves completely. Mix the rest of the milk with the flour and stir well with a whisk until there are no lumps.
2. Pour the milk and flour into the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly so that it does not stick to the base, until it thickens. Then remove from the heat.
3. We divide the porridge into individual containers, sprinkle with ground cinnamon and serve with the bread croutons.

Tips for perfect sweet porridge

• You can use stale or day-old bread, replacing the sliced ​​bread, just as it was done before.
• If you have celiacs at home, buy gluten-free bread. Of course, we replace the wheat flour used to thicken the milk with gluten-free flour or corn starch.
• This Andalusian dessert can be served hot, warm or cold.
• When serving the porridge there are two options, either sprinkle with ground cinnamon (as I did) or add cane honey.
• They keep well in the fridge until the next day, covered with plastic wrap touching the surface (so that a crust does not form). In this case, it is advisable to add the croutons at the time of serving, as well as the cinnamon or cane honey.
• You can toast the flour in the oil before adding the milk to make sure the flour is not raw, although I don’t usually do this because it is more work and I don’t think it changes the flavor much.

Andalusian Sweet porridge with Cinnamon: Step-by-step Dessert Recipe