Catalinas (Paledonias)
Soft round cookies made with wheat flour, panela, water and spices. A dark crumb, soft inside, sweet and aromatic. A symbol of Lara bakeries.
Ingredients
- 300 g (10.5 oz) grated panela
- 200 ml (¾ cup + 1 tbsp) water
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 5 cloves
- 500 g (1.1 lb) wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 100 g (3.5 oz / about ½ cup) vegetable shortening
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger (optional)
- A pinch of salt
Step-by-step preparation
- In a small pot, boil the panela with the water, the cinnamon stick and the cloves for 10 minutes until you have a dark syrup. Strain and let cool slightly.
- In a bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon, ginger and salt.
- In another bowl, beat the shortening with the egg until combined. Add the warm syrup and mix.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and work until you have a soft, dark dough. If it is too sticky, add a little more flour; if it is too dry, a splash of water.
- Form 80 g (2.8 oz) balls and flatten them with the palm of your hand on a tray with parchment paper. Traditional catalinas are round and flat, about 8–9 cm (3¼–3½ in) in diameter.
- Bake at 170 °C (338 °F) for 18–20 minutes. The idea is for them to remain **soft inside**: if you leave them longer, they end up hard like cookies.
- Let cool on a rack. They gain flavor the next day.
Catalinas—also called paledonias in other parts of Lara and the Andes—are one of the classic products of Lara bakeries and confectioneries. They are large, round, dark and soft cookies: a cross between a cookie and a sweet bread that has centuries of tradition in El Tocuyo.
Origin of the name
"Catalina" comes from the proper name Catalina, with no documented reason in the archives. The name "paledonia" is associated with pan de honia or with the diminutive of "paleta," but there is no etymological consensus.
How to recognize a good catalina
- Very dark brown color: the panela should be clearly present.
- Soft and moist crumb, not crumbly: the catalina is not a crunchy cookie. If it snaps when you break it, it has been overbaked.
- Aroma of cloves and cinnamon: the spices should be felt without dominating.
- Large diameter (~8 cm / 3¼ in) and 1 cm (⅜ in) thickness.
Traditional variations
- Catalina with cheese: 100 g of grated white cheese is added to the dough.
- Catalina with ginger: extra ginger and a touch of allspice.
- Catalina with anise: instead of ginger, whole anise seeds.
How it is eaten
Traditionally with black coffee—Tocuyo coffee from the Humocaros, if possible. It is the all-time Lara afternoon snack: catalinas and coffee at five in the afternoon.
Other Tocuyo recipes
Caramelized papaya (papaya preserve)
A Christmas and Easter dessert. Green papaya cooked in a syrup of panela with cinnamon, cloves and allspice until it becomes translucent and golden. A traditional preserve of Lara cooking.
DulceCut-milk dessert (dulce de leche cortada)
A flagship Tocuyo dessert with colonial roots. Milk is deliberately "cut" with lime juice and cooked with sugar and cinnamon until it forms white curds in a golden syrup. Intense dairy flavor and aroma of spices. ("Cut milk" refers to milk whose proteins have been deliberately curdled with acid.)
PanTocuyo acemita
The flagship bread of El Tocuyo and the entire central-western region of Venezuela. A dark, aromatic bread made with wheat flour, panela (raw cane sugar), anise, cinnamon and nutmeg, shaped into a ring or U.