How to turn your local tablea into crinkles
Here's a great local recipe to upgrade Leyte's cocoa
By ALMA WENDY YU
“Ano it marasa ha Tacloban (What’s delicious in Tacloban)?”
This city is the largest city in Region 8, making many regional delicacies accessible on your next visit to Tacloban City, Leyte. A quick Google search yields these popular delicacies—binagol, moron, suman-latik, bukayo, and roscas.
As someone who grew up in the city, I was surprised to see this short list. There are still a lot more beyond this Fab Five list, one of which is no stranger to most Filipinos—tablea.
Because tablea is produced all over the country, each region has its own production and version. Depending on where you are from and what you’re used to having, you’d most likely stay loyal to your region’s version of tablea. My mother is extremely loyal and refuses to acknowledge that others are better.
The ones sold in Tacloban City come from all over Leyte and Samar. You can ask the pasalubong center for the source of the tablea they have on display. Before the coffee shops and milk tea joints that are popular in today’s generation, our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents prepared this velvety chocolate drink called sikwate or tsokolate de batirol that doesn’t come out of a sachet.
Chefs today have jumped into the sustainability bandwagon and have been highlighting local ingredients more in their menu. This move has made us more creative in terms of ingredient use. Here, I steered away from usual tablea-to-sikwate cycle and made tablea-to-crinkles instead.
Recipe: Tablea Crinkles
Makes 30 crinkles
Note: This recipe calls for tablea or tablea powder. You can use either one in this recipe. I used tablea made in Palo, Leyte.
Ingredients:
45g pure tablea, grated finely (powdered option also available)
35g cocoa powder
3 eggs
45g butter, melted
300g white sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
180g all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
Powdered sugar, as needed
Method:
1. Sift cocoa powder and grated tablea into a bowl.
2. In the same bowl, add eggs, melted butter, white sugar, and vanilla. Mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Incorporate the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture.
5. Mix well and chill overnight.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F or 180C.
7. When the mixture is firm enough, scoop and form into one tablespoon ball. Coat with powdered sugar. If the mixture becomes too soft to handle, you can place it back in the refrigerator.
8. Place coated crinkles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Make sure there is space in between to allow spreading.
9. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until sides are dry.
10. Transfer to a cooling rack. It will firm up once cool.
I hope that this has introduced you to a bit of nostalgia. If ever you want to visit Tacloban City, make sure to go to the downtown area and check out the pasalubong stores and get yourself some tablea to bring back home.