I am so excited to share this recipe with you as it is one of my absolute favorite Greek cookies! Have you ever heard of them? Ergolavous?
Well it’s a traditional amygdaloto (almond) cookie sandwiched with decadent pastry cream! I mean who doesn’t love pastry cream! An ergolavos by definition is a builder. So the connotation here is that you are building this treat with two cookies and pastry cream!
This ergolavous amygdaloto cookie is also gluten free as it is only made with almond flour. This type of cookie is like the Greek equivalent to a French macaron.
Excitedly so, I have made them keto friendly as these are sugar free and sweetened with allulose.
Allulose is a sweetener that I have recently discovered that I can enjoy in a sweet treat, that does not cause adverse reactions to my gut. The good news is that it is NOT an artificial sweetener. In fact it naturally exists in foods like figs, wheat, and raisins. It is classified as a rare sugar. it will not cause an insulin spike. And here is a big plus for me! I tastes IDENTICAL to sugar. Believe me that I can taste the slightest difference and aftertaste. Allulose has zero. This makes it perfect for baked goods.
You want to begin this baking journey with the pastry cream. You will have extra leftover which you can use in anything from an eclair, to a cake or just eat it with a spoon.
I am going to divide this up into two parts for you. Pastry cream and then the cookie.
For the pastry cream I chose to use corn starch because the 5 tbsp is 46 carbs in the whole thing, still giving me a low carb dessert. However, you can use 1 tsp of xanthan gum if you prefer.
Ingredients for Ergolavous:
Pastry Cream:
2 cups heavy cream
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup allulose (or sugar)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
5 tbsp corn starch (or 1 tsp xanthan gum)
5 tbsp of butter
Amygdaloto Cookie:
3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups of superfine blanched almond flour
1 cup of allulose (or 1 cup of sugar)
1/4 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of cream of tartar
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
A few blanched almond slivers or slices for garnish
Directions:
Pastry Cream:
Gently warm up the heavy cream. In a separate bowl, beat your egg yolks with the allulose (or the sugar) till combined. Add in the vanilla, salt, corn starch (or xanthum gum). Mix well. Add a little of the warm milk to the mixture while whisking to temper the eggs, till you have fully combined them. Then return to the stove and whisk continuously (on medium heat) till you have achieved a thickened pastry cream. This will literally happen in only a couple of minutes. So don’t get distracted. Remove from the stovetop & whisk in the butter.
Pour into a container and cover with plastic wrap. You want the plastic wrap to touch the surface so that it does not make a film. Refrigerate till cold.
Amygdalota Cookies:
Preheat the oven to 320 F.
In a medium sized bowl, mix the allulose and almond flour together. In a large mixing bowl, using the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and salt to stiff peaks. Add in the cream of tartar, vanilla & almond extract. Whisk for a few moments more. Fold in the mixture of allulose and almond flour. Then once more using the whisk attachment, whisk together to better incorporate for under a minute.
I used a piping bag for this part. You can use a small cookie scoop if you have that. The cookies with barely spread out, but if you make the tops too round, flatten them for the sandwich just a little. If you don’t have a piping gag, use a ziploc bag & cut off the bottom corner and pipe them out. My cookies are roughly a 2 inch diameter.
Pipe them on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Press an almond slice or sliver on top. Bake for roughly 18-20 minutes. Let them cool on a rack and bake the next batch. I got 24 cookies in total. Meaning that sandwiched, they are 12.
Before sandwiching these cookies with the pastry cream, be sure that both parts have completely cooled down.
Assembling the Ergolavous:
Now it’s time to build this cookie treat and assemble the ERGOLAVOUS!
Transfer the pastry cream into a mixing bowl & with the whisk attachment whisk it. This will aerate it and give it volume. Do this for only a few seconds, place some of it into a piping bag and pipe onto the center of the flat side of the cookie. Gently press a second cookie on top of that and repeat with the rest.
Let them set for around three hours. Enjoy with a hot cup of coffee!
Kali Oreksi!
on xenia street 