- 2 cups of white sugar
- ½ cup of water
- 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
- 1 piece of lemon peel
- 12 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
In a saucepan, put one cup of sugar, the water, the lemon juice, and the lemon peel. Stir and let it make a syrup. It will be ready when you lift the spoon and a continuous thread is formed. You should obtain the equivalent of ¾ of a cup. Remove the lemon peel and let it cool.
Beat the egg yolks, add the vanilla, and gradually incorporate the syrup. Place this mixture in a saucepan over low heat and continuously stir with a spatula until a thick mixture is obtained. You will see that it gradually changes to a more intense or toasted yellow color. Remove it from the heat and let it cool.
From this point, there are two ways to do it:
- The traditional or basic recipe:
Using a spoon, pour the portions of the dough onto a greased plate or tart pan. Refrigerate. When the dough is well chilled, shape into small balls and roll in fine sugar. You should get approximately 25 small yolks.
- The most common recipe in Cuba is the following:
Add the remaining cup of sugar and mix well. Using a small spoon, take some of the dough and form little balls, rolling them in fine powdered sugar. You will end up with about 40 little yolks.
The little yemas are usually decorated with jam, with powdered cinnamon, or they can be left plain so that their sugary crust shines. In this case, we also made some with a touch of chocolate cream.
We hope you enjoy this recipe.