Sylvanas

Cold, crunchy, chewy, creamy, nutty and buttery, it is the perfect sweet treat! Silvanas is a Filipino frozen cookie snack/dessert prepared with cashew meringue layered with butter cream then rolled in ground cookies and cashews.

Silvanas, alternatively spelled as sylvanas or sylvannas is probably one of the best desserts the Filipino cuisine has to offer, a light, chewy dessert is made up of buttercream sandwiched between nutty creamy meringue wafers then dusted off with ground cashews, it’s just a pure dessert decadence. A close cousin of the Sansrival but presented as a bite-sized package that is easy to devour, usually served really cold or frozen.

Like most of the baked items or intricate looking desserts here at Ang Sarap, I had hesitated a lot in making this as I am not sure how hard or laborious, they are to make, but like everyone said you won’t know unless you tried it even just once. So, you know what comes next! Yes, I tried it and yes it was laborious but it was not hard at all. Just make your meringues and butter cream, spread that concoction into the cookie, roll it then chill. The first silvans may be hard but as you go through your third or fourth assembly them it get easier and easier. Also don’t be worried if your meringue is not perfectly flat or have rough edges, you can fix that imperfection once butter cream is applied, they are the ones that will smoothen the outer surfaces.

Now for our recipe we did change it a bit, same ingredients but we prepared it in three layers instead of the traditional two layers, the result is the same delicious cookie but less fatty and less sugar because in order to get the thickness you want, you don’t need to place a thick layer of butter cream, just thin layers would suffice, the third layer of meringue gives that thickness at the same time adds more crunch compared to just two.

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Sylvanas

  • Author: Raymund
  • Prep Time: 30 mins
  • Cook Time: 40 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hour 10 mins
  • Yield: 10 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: Filipino

Description

Silvanas / Sylvanas is a Filipino frozen cookie snack/dessert prepared with cashew meringue layered with butter cream then rolled in ground cookies and cashews.

 


Ingredients

Units Scale

Meringue

  • 5 large egg whites, room temperature
  • 1 cup ground salted cashews
  • 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Buttercream

  • 5 large egg yolks, chilled
  • 225 g butter, cubed and softened
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Coating


Instructions

Meringue

  1. Create a template for your meringue by drawing 10 cm by 7 cm oval in a piece of paper. Trace this template into a baking paper, do it repeatedly across the area of your baking paper until you have 15 ovals, do it again on another baking paper, so in total you will have 30 oval shapes. Set baking paper aside.
  2. In a mixer whisk 5 egg large whites on medium-high speed until foamy.
  3. Add cream of tartar then continue whisking until it can for soft peaks.
  4. Gradually add sugar then continue to whisk until meringue is shiny and can form stiff peaks.
  5. Gently fold ground salted cashews until evenly distributed into the meringue.
  6. Place meringue mixture into a piping bag. Place baking paper with drawn ovals, ink sided down into a baking tray then pipe meringue into the baking sheet following the drawn ovals. Smoothen top with spatula.
  7. Bake in a 145C preheated oven for 20 minutes or until the sides turn a light brown. Turn the heat off then leave the cookies in the oven for another 10 minutes to fully crisp and cook.
  8. Remove from oven, let it fully cool down before adding the buttercream.

Buttercream

  1. In a large pot boil water, bring it to a simmer.
  2. In a large stainless-steel bowl, whisk together 5 large egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and salt. Place bowl on top of simmering pot then constantly stir and scrape the side until egg yolk mixture is cooked or temperature reached 68C, be careful with the temperature so it does not become a scrambled egg.
  3. Place stainless steel bowl over the top of another bowl filled with cold water to cool down the mixture. Using a hand mixer whisk egg yolk for 8 minutes.
  4. Gently add the butter, one small cube at a time then continue whisking until buttercream is thick and creamy and pale in colour. Set it aside in a cool place.

Assembly

  1. Combine coating ingredients in a large bowl, mix it well.
  2. Grab a cooled down cookie, spread some buttercream on the uneven side, do this with three layers of cookies then sandwich them together, make sure smooth sides are on the outside. Fill the outsides with buttercream then smoothen it out with a spatula.
  3. Roll the cookie in graham cracker cashew crumbs mixture, set it aside and place it in a container that you can cover. Do it with the remaining cookies. Makes 10 pieces of 3-layer sylvanas.
  4. Chill before servings, best served cold.

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6 Responses

  1. Looks like lots of work! But definitely worth all of the efforts, Raymund. I love that nutty coating too. So good and irresistible.

  2. Sounds delicious, Raymund! Anything with butter cream is like manna from heaven for me. And that crunchy coating… !

  3. This is the first time I’ve heard of Sylvanas – they sound amazing! I understand why you were a little hesitant to make these, but they turned out well. I bet you enjoyed this batch!!

  4. Hannah says:

    Ahhh those look amazing! I always wanted to try making sylvanas, and had originally planned to put them in my ice cream book, but ran out of time. Then I promptly forgot… Gotta put these back on the list!

  5. Neil says:

    I love this Sylvanas Filipino dessert! Sign me up Raymund! Yum!

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