Silvanas Recipe – How to Make Philippine Sylvanas Cookies

Silvanas recipe – crunchy meringue cookie sandwiches filled with luxurious French buttercream. A unique and beloved Filipino treat!

(Lengua de gato and ube cookies are other Filipino cookie recipes you can try!)

Disclosure: This Silvanas Recipe post is sponsored by Egg Farmers of Canada. I have been compensated monetarily but all photos, words and opinions are mine. Thank you for supporting the brands and organizations that support me.

Are you #eastertaining this year?

Easter and eggs go hand in hand. But there’s more to this delicious partnership than Easter egg hunts!

In fact, it’s a great time to share your favourite egg recipes with loved ones. Like this sunny-side up pavlova recipe – you can even set up a little choose-your-own pavlova topping station and involve your guests in the adventure. How fun is that?

For our family, silvanas (or sylvanas, both are correct and used interchangeably) are a favourite Easter treat. They are possibly one of the most unique cookies in the world, certainly one of the richest and most decadent. I hope it becomes a favourite for your family too!

What are silvanas / sylvanas cookies?

But first, what are they? Imagine smooth French buttercream sandwiched between two crunchy cashew meringue cookies.

Don’t stop there. Frost the whole cookie sandwich with more buttercream then coat it with cookie and cashew crumbs.

Freeze and eat cold. So good!

If you’ve had sans rival before, silvanas are its cookie cousin.

Ingredients for this easy silvanas recipe

Both sans rival and silvanas are meringue-based, which means you would need egg whites. And since silvanas are frosted with French buttercream, you’d need the egg yolks too.

So it’s really important to use farm fresh eggs in this recipe. Here in Canada, we’re lucky because eggs get from farm to grocery store in less than a week!

All thanks to a great supply management system and a network of over 1,000 Canadian family farms who work year-round so we can have the best Grade A eggs possible.

In addition to high quality eggs, you’d need:

• Cream of tartar
• Sugar
• Cashews
• Vanilla extract
• Butter – try and get the best butter you can find as well
• Graham cracker crumbs

Tools you need to make sylvanas cookies

To make sylvanas, a food processor and a stand-mixer would certainly make life easier. You can do without them though.

If you don’t have a food processor, you can chop the cashews as finely as you can. And you can use a handheld electric mixer to make your meringue.

What I do recommend you invest in is a food thermometer. It’s inexpensive and so useful. This recipe involves working with egg yolks and you want to make sure they are properly cooked. A thermometer helps ensure that.

Alternatively, you can buy pasteurized eggs or pasteurize them yourself. Here’s a great guide. 

I personally prefer cooking the yolks myself so I have no fear serving these cookies to kids or pregnant friends (everybody deserves silvanas!).

Other tools you’ll need include:

• Cookie sheet
• Parchment paper
• Piping bag (or a large Ziploc bag)
• Offset spatula

How to make silvanas cookies

Now we’re ready to bake some silvanas. We need to make our meringue first.

In a bowl, whisk your egg whites until foamy, then add your cream of tartar. Continue whisking until you reach soft peaks.

Gradually add the sugar until the meringue is stiff (but still glossy not matte). Then gently fold your ground cashews.

Pipe the meringue onto your cookie sheet and bake at 300F for 20 minutes or until the cookies are a beautiful light brown around the edges.

Turn the oven off but keep the cookies in the oven for another 10 minutes.

Tips for making meringue

There are two things you need to remember to make successful meringue every time:

1. Make sure your egg whites are room temperature. They whip better and are more stable.
2. Also ensure your bowl and your whisk are absolutely grease-free. Oil is meringue’s enemy so you want to make sure there is not a spot of oil or grease on anything.

I share more tips in my post on Brazo de Mercedes cupcakes – fluffy meringue cupcakes filled with rich custard (in other words – yum!) – check it out.

Tips for making French buttercream with cooked egg yolks

Unlike American buttercream, which is made with butter and confectioner’s sugar, French buttercream is made with egg yolks so you have frosting that’s richer, smoother but not as sweet.

Traditionally, French buttercream is made by slowly pouring hot sugar syrup (238F / 114C – pretty hot!) while you whip the egg yolks.

I have two issues with this: one, I’m deathly scared of hot sugar syrup drizzling into a running mixer. And two, I have reservations about the syrup fully cooking the egg yolks.

My favourite frosting is Swiss meringue buttercream and I wondered if French buttercream can be made the same way – can I cook the egg yolks with sugar in a double boiler then whip it with butter? Happily, I can!

A few things to remember when making this cooked French buttercream:

• Constantly stir your egg yolk-sugar mixture so it doesn’t turn into scrambled eggs.
• Watch the temperature of the egg yolks – once you reach 155F / 68C the egg yolks should be fully cooked.
• Make sure you use cubed, softened butter. Butter must easily give way when you gently press your thumb onto it. But it should not look greasy or oily like it’s about to melt.

How to assemble silvanas

Putting together your silvanas requires a little organization. My steps look like this:

Step 2 – sandwich with another cookie (remember, smooth side out)

Step 5 – frost one side of the cookie sandwich (I don’t put a lot of buttercream on the outside of the cookie; just enough for the crumbs to stick)

Step 6 – roll that side in the crumbs

Step 7 – frost the other side and roll that in the crumbs

I find it’s easier to work with coated cookies as opposed to frosting the whole cookie and having buttercream all over my hands.

I know some bakers like to freeze in between steps for the smoothest, neatest coating. Other simply fill, frost and coat. Whatever works, right?

Try a few cookies and see what method you like best.

You know what would make the whole thing that much quicker though? Involve the kids! Have them make their own cookie sandwiches.

I won’t lie – it’s going to be messy but it will be so much fun. The most challenging part would be asking them to wait the 30 minutes for the cookies to set!

Eggs are not just for Easter

Silvanas are definitely a special occasion cookie. But eggs are not just for special occasions. In fact we eat Canadian eggs everyday!

So whether you’re planning your epic Easter menu or meal planning for next week, add eggs to your grocery list. They’re not only versatile and delicious, they’re also nutritious and good for you.

Happy baking!

Did you make silvanas / sylvanas? How are you celebrating Easter this year?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below. And use the hashtag #eastertaining in your social media posts so we can see all the delicious things you’re up to!