Mantecol – Argentine Peanut Halva
Mantecol is the holiday confection in Argentina: a mixture of peanut paste and sugar, close to a halva but creamier. This homemade version builds it in layers with pieces of chocolate and toasted peanuts, and lets the fridge do the rest. For everyone who fights over the last slice of the original every December.
If you make the peanut paste yourself, you need patience and you need to know the sequence: toasted peanuts in the blender go first to a powder, then to a dry lump, and only after five to eight minutes do they release their oil and turn creamy. At exactly the point where it looks as though it is not going to work, it works.
Ingredients
- 400 g peanut butter (or toasted unsalted peanuts blended to a paste)
- 200 g powdered sugar (icing sugar)
- 400 ml pouring cream
- 100 g dark chocolate, chopped
- 80 g toasted peanuts, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- A pinch of salt
Method
- 1
If you are starting from toasted peanuts, blend them for 5-8 minutes, scraping down the sides, until you have a flowing paste: first it becomes a powder, then it releases its oil and turns to cream. Patience.
- 2
Mix the peanut paste with the icing sugar, the vanilla and the pinch of salt to an even mass, like a soft marzipan.
- 3
Whip the cream to soft peaks and fold it into the peanut mixture in two additions, with sweeping movements: you end up with a thick cream the colour of milky coffee.
- 4
Line a loaf tin with cling film, leaving an overhang at the edges to lift it out.
- 5
Build it in layers: a third of the peanut cream, half of the chopped chocolate and the coarse peanuts, and repeat, finishing with cream.
- 6
Close it with the overhanging film and put it in the freezer for 2 hours (or the fridge for 6): it has to be firm enough to cut.
- 7
Lift it out by the film, cut it into thick slices and serve cold, with grated chocolate over the top. It keeps a week in the fridge… if it gets that far.