Traditional Guatemalan Candies for the End of the Year

How many of these Guatemalan candies can you name? How many have you tried?

Dulces de cabecera, or headboard candies or sweets, is what many of a combination of these traditional Guatemalan sweets are called around All Saints Day and Day of the Dead. If you ask me, I think tombstone candies might be a better term in English, as cabecera in this particular instances refers to that. The de facto dulces de cabecera are jocotes en miel [yellow plums in syrup] and ayote en miel [squash in syrup], but any of the candies shown in this sampler of Guatemalan sweets will do.

As you can see, Guatemalan candies are based on fruits, nuts and seeds and lots of molasses. Some fruits like jocote and ayote are basically cooked in a syrup made with water, molasses or sugar, cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, and sometimes ginger.

If you ask me, a sampler plate of dulces típicos guatemaltecos or traditional Guatemalan sweets, can be as colourful and tasteful as fiambre, don’t you agree?

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