Traditional pastry of Mallorca, discover the sweetest side of the island!
Ready to lick your fingers? The typical pastry of Mallorca is waiting for you. What to eat and where to eat it, in order to sweeten up your day. Of course, it is impossible to talk about sweets on this island without instantly thinking of the classic ensaimada. But, as you will see, there are a few traditional sweets you should definitely try.
Ensaimada
This is the queen amongst the Mallorcan sweets. As we all know, it is essentially a Puff pastry bun, shaped like a shell, made with flour, eggs, yeast, sugar and lard. In 2017, the Forn Sant Francesc de Inca won the award for “the best ensaimada in the world”. The most common filling is “angel hair”, for which the Forn de Pont (Palma) got the maximum score from the Regulatory Board of Ensaimada. Furthermore, we also highlight those with a chocolate filling (Reina María Cristina in Palma), toasted cream filling (Can Marroig, Sóller) or almond cream filling (C’an Tofolet, from Llucmajor). You can also find a salty version of the ensaimada, which can be filled with sobrasada and pumpkin, known as ensaimada de tallades, and which is typically cooked during carnival season. In addition to the “big sized” ensaimadas, we find individual small ensaimadas, which are usually served for breakfast. We highlight those from the Campomar Pastry, in Peguet.
Cocas
If the ensaimada is considered the queen of Mallorca’s pastry, the coca would be the princess. It is a sort of sponge cake, even if somewhat lower and more compact and with many different shapes. There are sweet and salty versions, although here we are only talking about the former. They are made all over the island and the list of varieties is very extensive. The most famous one is the coca of San Juan, which traditionally was backed only for that special summer night, but now it is cooked all year long. It is said that the most delicious one is the coca de patata from Valldemosa (Ca’n Molinas pastry shop is famous for it), followed very closely by the apricot coca or the nougat coca.
Quartos embetumats
They are made from a “coca de cuarto”, a typical Mallorcan sponge cake, very fluffy and gluten-free, since it only contains eggs, sugar and potato starch. The “cuarto” is filled with candied yolk or confectioner’s custard, and covered with a very generous layer of meringue. This sweet is typically made in Palma and the most famous ones are those from the Ca’n Frasquet pastry shop in the Mallorcan capital.
Easter Sweets
There is a total of four typical sweets made during the Easter festivities in Mallorca. First of all, the crespells, which are cookies in the shape of hearts, flowers, fish and, above all, 6-pointed stars. In Manacor, there’s a version of crespells in the shape of a human called senyorets (little men). The rubiols is a yeast-free pastry in the shape of a half moon. Its dough contains orange juice and they are stuffed with marmalade -typically apricot flavour-, cottage cheese, chocolate, “angel hair” or cream. Both the panades (cylindrical empanadas) and the cocarrois (in a half-moon shape) can be made with sweet or savory dough, but the filling is always salty: meat, fish or vegetables.
Gató d’ametlla
It is a sweet made from eggs, sugar and almonds that curiously does not include flour in its recipe. Its appearance is similar to that of the Santiago cake but it is much fluffier. It is usually combined with Mallorcan almond ice cream.
Cardenal de Lloseta
This is a typical dessert from Lloseta, a town close to the Sierra de Tramontana. The original recipe is stored away and sealed inside a historic bakery, the Forn de Baix, located in the afore-mentioned town, which is, obviously, also the ideal place to taste it. It includes a base of typical Mallorcan sponge cake (medritxo), Swiss meringue, whipped cream and cherry liqueur.
Other sweets
In addition to the classics of Mallorca’s pastry, there are other sweets that, without being native of the island, are made with local variations of their own. This is the case, for example, of the Mallorcan buñuelos, which are cooked with potato and sweet potato and a classic dough which contains flour, butter, milk, eggs and yeast. The panellets, which are also made in Mallorca – as in the rest of the Balearic islands, Catalonia and Valencia-, traditional sweet baked on the All Saint’s Day. It is based on potatoes, almonds, eggs and sugar.
And with these traditional Mallorcan delicacies, we hope that we have made your mouth water. As you have seen, the island’s “sweet tradition” goes far beyond the well-known Ensaimada.
