Culture is evolving everyday. Some traditions will last for decades even hundreds of years, while other are destine to disappear. It is the same with typical food and desserts. Felipa, my grandmother used to prepare Chancaquitas in the 50´s when my mother was a child, in Pisco city. She made them to sale them and get income that the family needed. My mother start to (really) learn to cook when she got married. Now my mother´s Chancaquitas do not have the texture they should have, my grandmother did not write recipes.
For this second Peru Food tour I made a pairing with the national spirit Pisco and traditional desserts prepared in Chincha. For the pairing we used smashed quince (machacado de membrillo, 4th in the picture), pumpkin jam (dulce de Calabaza alcayota, 5th in the picture) and peanut turron (2nd in the picture). I think they called it turron just for a random reason because it doesn´t look like a turron. I will take more pictures of it in the future. We used 4 types of spirit Pisco produced in Chincha.
I used also Chancaquitas for this picture because I hear there are just a few people who still prepare it. In Chincha market I only found 2 places where to buy them. They are made from milk and sugar, and flavored with some cinnamon and cloves. They should have a cookies texture, be able to split into pieces. I am 38 years old and only now from time to time I write my moms recipes, and try to prepared them a few times. I hope Chancaquitas will not disappear.
In the Picture 1) Chancachitas 2) peanut turron 3) Sweet figs 4) smashed quince 5) alcayota pumpkin jam
