Pionono

Several popular confectionery products originating from Granada, Spain, are known as pionono.

In Spain

Piononos de Santa Fe.

The pionono, in Spain, is a small cake traditionally made in Santa Fe, a town very close to the city of Granada.

Features

It is made up of two parts, a thin sheet of rolled cake, forming a cylinder moistened in a syrup made with water and sugar in equal parts, which gives it a pleasant and fresh texture, filled and crowned with cream toasted with a torch.

Statue in honor of the pioneer, Ceferino Isla, in the city of Santa Fe, province of Granada, Andalusia.

Its shape with cream and a toasted crown is intended to represent the silhouette of the head of a Pope, and the name alludes to Pius IX, that is, Pius Ninth, or Nono, the last pontiff to hold the sovereignty of Rome, the one of longest reign (after Saint Peter) and who proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. According to the most widespread version, its creation is attributed to the pastry chef Ceferino Isla González, very devoted to the Immaculate Conception, sometime after 1897. However, the first reference to this sweet appears on March 18, 1858 in the Madrid press..

Regarding his spelling, he was known as «pío nono» or «píos nonos», and it was Leopoldo Alas «Clarín» who, in his novel La Regenta (1884), refers to him as "pionono".

In America

In some countries of America (Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela) a basic pastry dough consisting of a thin sheet of sponge cake is called pionono. This cake is filled and rolled up to form a cylinder that is then decorated for its best presentation. On the basis of this same sponge cake, sweet piononos and salty or sweet and sour piononos are made.

Sweet pine cones

Piononos salted in slices.

In the case of sweet piononos, the sponge cake is filled with dulce de leche, sometimes with the addition of chopped walnuts, or with strawberries with Chantilly cream or even ice cream. Sweet pionono is served as a dessert dish. In Chile and Colombia it is also called queen's arm and in Uruguay gypsy arm. In addition, in Uruguay the massini is made, a dessert that consists of two layers of pionono filled with a kind of chantilly cream covered with burnt yolk.

Salty or sweet and sour piononos

Sweet Argentine Piononos.

In the case of salty or sweet and sour piononos, the sponge cake is filled with cooked ham, cheese, tomato, olives and mayonnaise, or with cooked ham, hearts of palm and golf sauce. Chicken, tuna or hard-boiled eggs are also often used. The salty pionono is served as an appetizer before the main course, and is usually accompanied by a lettuce and tomato salad. In Argentina and Uruguay it is a dish that is commonly prepared for the end of the year holidays: Christmas and New Year.

In Cuba and Puerto Rico

In these Caribbean countries, piononos are prepared using ripe or yellow plantains instead of sponge cake. They are usually filled with minced meat, seafood or vegetables; the whole is coated in flour and egg, to fry it in abundant oil.

Philippines

In the Philippines, pionono sometimes written: "pianono" consists of a baked dough, filled with sugar, butter, or jam.