polvoron w/ pinipig

When I spotted coconut milk powder for only $2.50 a bag in the clearance section of my local health food store, I picked some up on a whim. In the back of my mind, my intention was to veganize a childhood favorite, polvoron or pulboron, a powdered milk confection from the Philippines (by way of Spain). Somewhere in between a cookie and a candy, each polvoron is individually wrapped and meant to be quickly devoured before it devolves into a crumbly mess on your face and shirt.

I finally had an excuse to test it out for a Filipino-themed vegan potluck that I recently attended. The texture was spot-on and the taste was pretty damn close. I'll have to tinker with the recipe a bit more to get it just right (brown rice syrup, maybe?), but for now my inner 7-year-old is content.

Here's the basic recipe I followed. I had some pinipig (pounded young rice) on hand, and so I toasted it up, and that went into the batter as well. I made the following substitutions:

• white whole wheat flour in place of regular flour
• coconut oil in place of butter (if you want to go the more decadent route, use a high-quality vegan butter, such as Earth Balance)
• coconut sugar in place of cane sugar (I might try a fraction of brown rice syrup)
• powdered coconut milk in place of powdered cow's milk

Enjoy polvoron with coffee, tea, or non-dairy milk. The recipe makes about 60 servings and doubles well. Note that you'll need a special polvoron mold to make it.