Panallets are small, usually round, cakes, made with a mixture of sugar, egg yolk, and almond. Sometimes, home-made recipes also include potato or sweet potato. They are complemented with other ingredients like pine nuts, crushed almonds, coconut and chocolate. There are as many ways of making panallets as there are houses where they are made, but the most typical are the almond and pine nut varieties.

In Catalonia, panallets, together with chestnuts and sweet potatoes, are the typical food of All Saints' Day. Their origin is unclear, but it seems they are the descendants of ancient funerary rites which involved taking small bread rolls to the church, or tombs of the departed, as an offering during this festival. Also, the fact that they are long-lasting foodstuff links to the concept of eternity and remembrance of the dead.

Method

Ingredients: 600 g almonds or pine nuts, 3 eggs.
- To make the marzipan mixture: 500 g ground almonds, 500 g sugar, 100 g cooked sweet potato, 75 g egg white.

Mix all the ingredients together to make a smooth dough.
Wrap it in a damp cloth and leave it to rest in the fridge for at least 24 hours.
Make oval-shaped balls from the marzipan, of about 20 g each, cover them in egg and stick on a halved almond, pressing it down a little.
Brush the panallets with egg.
Put them on a greased baking tray and cook them in the oven at 230 ˚C - 250 ˚C for 10 minutes, until they go golden.