Tocino de cielo
An Andalusian dessert whose name means "heavenly bacon" — after its density and intense yellow. Tradition has it that it was born in Jerez, where wineries clarified sherry with egg whites and gave the yolks to the nuns. Hence the ingredients: yolks, sugar and water, little else. Without milk or cream it is far denser than flan, and success rests on two things: syrup boiled to 105°C, and yolks that are never whisked.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Caramel 10 min
- Syrup 15 min
- Yolk mixture 15 min
- Baking 40 min
- Chilling 180 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneMake caramel and pour it into the tin
Boil the sugar with the water and lemon juice without stirring to a deep amber and pour it at once into a 22 by 12 cm tin, tilting to coat. Caramel sets within seconds — have the tin ready.
Ingredients: 100 g sugar · 30 ml water · ½ pcs lemon
Boil the syrup to 105°C
Boil the sugar with the water, lemon peel and cinnamon to exactly 105°C — the thread stage. The temperature is critical here: lower gives a watery dessert, higher a rubbery one. Without a thermometer, check that the syrup threads between your fingers.
Ingredients: 300 g sugar · 150 ml water · 1 pcs lemon · 1 pcs cinnamon
Exactly 105°C — the thread stage.Stir the yolks without aerating
Stir the yolks with the whole egg using a spoon, not a whisk and not a mixer. Beaten-in air creates bubbles in the finished dessert and costs it the dense smoothness it exists for.
Ingredients: 12 pcs egg yolks · 1 pcs egg
A spoon, no foam — bubbles ruin the smoothness.Temper the yolks with hot syrup
Strain the syrup to remove the peel and cinnamon and leave it for about 10 minutes to cool to about 80°C. Pour it into the yolks in a very thin stream, stirring constantly. Boiling syrup, or syrup poured too fast, scrambles them instantly.
Ingredients: 12 pcs egg yolks · 1 pcs egg
Strain through a fine sieve
Pour the mixture through a fine sieve into the caramel-lined tin. The sieve catches any set yolk and the chalazae — without this step rubbery threads show up in the finished dessert, visible when cut.
Ingredients: 12 pcs egg yolks · 1 pcs egg
Through a sieve — it catches set threads and chalazae.Bake in a covered water bath
Set the tin in a roasting tray, pour in hot water halfway up the tin, cover with foil and bake 40 minutes in an oven heated to 150°C. The foil prevents browning — tocino should be uniformly yellow, with no skin.
Ingredients: 12 pcs egg yolks · 1 pcs egg
Check the wobble and chill three hours
It is ready when it wobbles like jelly rather than ripples as you move the tin. Cool and chill 3 hours. Warm it is too soft to turn out — it gains its full density only when cold.
Ingredients: 12 pcs egg yolks · 1 pcs egg
Turn out and cut into cubes
Run a knife around the edges and invert onto a dish. The caramel runs down the sides. Cut into small squares — tocino is intensely sweet and dense, and a flan-sized portion would be unfinishable.
Ingredients: 100 g sugar · 30 ml water · ½ pcs lemon
Before you start
What to do with the whites
Twelve whites is a lot. In Andalusia they went into meringues or tortas. Elsewhere: meringues, dacquoise, financiers or pavlova. Whites keep up to three days in the fridge or three months frozen.
A thermometer is genuinely needed
This is one of the few desserts where syrup temperature truly decides the outcome, since there is no milk or flour to forgive an error. A sugar thermometer costs less than two failed attempts.
Four days in the fridge
Tocino de cielo keeps four days and is better on the second — the caramel dissolves in the condensation and becomes a liquid sauce. Keep it in the tin and turn it out only before serving.
