Sweet Memories | Orange Banana Polvoron

"This is the first year we are celebrating Christmas without Mommy Dory."

The tone in my sister in law's voice reveals that she misses Mommy Dory.  I do too. Who wouldn't miss her especially at this time of the year? I know if she were still alive, Mommy Dory (my hubs maternal grandmother) would be busy in the kitchen making traditional Filipino Christmas sweets and savory dishes.  

At this time, she would already have wrapped dozens of polvorons, (soft and crumbly Filipino shortbread cookie) with colorful "papel de hapon" (Japanese paper).  These irresistible, melt-in-your-mouth polvorons disappear fast on the table.  Every time someone walks by, they grab one haha! So she packs a few pieces in small boxes and keeps them in the small fridge in her room. She labels the boxes with our names for us to take home after our yearly Christmas reunions in Las Vegas a few years ago.

Yes, Christmas evokes sweet memories and oh yes, definitely food memories.  

We are grateful that Mommy Dory left us with loads of them...

Her anecdotes and nuggets of wisdom never fail to make us laugh... and even make us shed tears as we smile. 

Although to tell you honestly, I'm not sure how she will like the nontraditional polvoron flavors I created... All I know is, I thought about her lovingly as I made them.

You could check out Mommy Dory's Polvoron here, but today I'm going to share with you:

Banana Orange Polvoron

Ingredients:
2 c flour
1 c powdered milk
1 c melted butter (allow it to cool)
2/3 c sugar
2 c banana chips (pulverized)
3 tsp orange zest

Directions:

On a pan (Mommy Dory would say, make sure the pan is thick enough!) toast flour in medim heat stirrimg constantly (she could actually tell by the smell of the flour roasting when it's good enough) until light brown.
Transfer the roasted flour in a bowl right away to avoid further cooking.

Add the powdered milk and sugar into the mixing bowl  and mix them together. Add the pulverized banana chips and orange zest.

Add the melted butter (she would repeat that the butter should be cold enough)

Mix it thoroughly and make sure there are no lumps.

Using a special  moulder shown above, fill it with the polvoron micture and press  it hard then release it,  Add more butter if the mixture in not firm enough.

Wrap it in cellophane or in my case I used gift wrapping tissue paper.  (while waiting for the powdered mixture to cool down, Mommy would cut the paper uniformly... and yes wrap the polvoron one by one). But sometimes, the polvoron won't even get the chance to be wrapped, because kids and adults alike would come around and grab a molded polvoron right away... hmmm ... YUM!