Tarta de Santiago
Tarta de Santiago, literally meaning cake of St. James, is an almond cake or pie from Galicia with origin in the Middle Ages. The Galician name for cake is Torta whilst it is often referred to Tarta, which is the Spanish word. The filling principally consists of ground almonds, eggs and sugar. The top of the pie is usually decorated with powdered sugar, masked by an imprint of the Cross of Saint James (cruz de Santiago) which gives the pastry its name. It was the sweet chosen to represent Spain in the Cafe Europe initiative of the Austrian presidency of the European Union, on Europe Day 2006. In May 2010, the EU gave Tarta de Santiago PGI status within Europe This dessert was rated #23 overall at the World Baked Goods competition in 1986, held in Warsaw, Poland.Dessert is the usually sweet course that concludes a meal. The food that composes the dessert course includes but is not limited to sweet foods. There is a wide variety of desserts in western cultures now including cakes, cookies, biscuits, gelatins, pastries, ice creams, pies, pudding, and candies. Fruit is also commonly found in dessert courses because of its natural sweetness. Many different cultures have their own variations of similar desserts around the world, such as in Russia, where many breakfast foods such as blint, oladi, and syrniki can be served with honey and jam to make them popular as desserts. The loosely defined course called dessert can apply to many foods.[1]A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Pies are defined by their crusts. A filled pie (also single-crust or bottom-crust), has pastry lining the baking dish, and the filling is placed on top of the pastry, but left open. A top-crust pie, which may also be called a cobbler, has the filling in the bottom of the dish and the filling covered with a pastry or other covering before baking. A two-crust pie has the filling completely enclosed in the pastry shell. Flaky pastry is a typical kind of pastry used for pie crusts, but many things can be used, including baking powder biscuits, mashed potatoes, and crumbs. Pies can be a variety of sizes, ranging from bite-size to ones designed for multiple servings.Powdered sugar, also known as confectioners' sugar or icing sugar, is very fine sugar. When intended for home use, it typically contains a small amount of anti-caking agent. In industrial food production, it is used where a quick dissolving sugar is required. Domestically, it is principally used to make icing or frosting and other cake decorations. It is often lightly dusted onto baked goods to add a light sweetness and subtle decoration. Powdered sugar is available in different degrees of fineness , most commonly XXX, XXXX, and 10X, with more Xs indicating finer grains.[1] Powdered sugar is generally mixed with cornstarch, wheat flour, or calcium phosphate to improve its flowing ability, and thus it is not generally used to sweeten beverages. However, industrial grades without these additives are available. One can make powdered sugar at home by putting normal granulated sugar in a coffee grinder or grinding it by hand in a mortar and pestle. Caster sugar (also referred to as superfine or baker's sugar) has a larger particle size, up to approximately half that of granulated sugar. Snow powder (or snow sugar) is a non-melting form of icing sugar, useful for retaining its structure when dusted onto cakes or pastries that require refrigeration. It is mostly used for decorative purposes.