From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pastry product from Mallorca (Balearic Islands)
The
ensaimada
is a
pastry
product from
Mallorca
,
Balearic Islands
,
Spain
. It is a common cuisine eaten in
southwestern Europe
,
Latin America
and the
Philippines
.
The
ensaimada de Mallorca
is made with strong
flour
,
water
,
sugar
,
eggs
,
mother dough
and a kind of reduced
pork
lard
named
saim
in
Catalan
, which gives the pastry its name. The handmade character of the product makes it difficult to give an exact formula, so scales have been established defining the proportion of each ingredient, giving rise to an excellent quality traditional product.
The pastry apparently has a Jewish origin, deriving from
bulemas
, using lard instead of olive oil as a means of escaping the suspicions of the authorities during the Inquisition.
[1]
The first written references to the Mallorcan
ensaimada
date back to the 17th century. At that time, although
wheat
flour was mainly used for making
bread
, there is evidence that this typical pastry product was made for festivals and celebrations.
In Mallorca and
Ibiza
, there is a sweet called
greixonera
made with
ensaimada
pieces left over from the day before.
[2]
Variants
[
edit
]
The Balearic Islands
[
edit
]
Among the variants of
ensaimada
the most common are:
- Llisa
(literally "plain") with no extra ingredient.
- Cabell d'angel
(literally "angel's hair"), the stringy orange strands found inside pumpkins are cooked with sugar to make a sweet filling that is rolled inside the dough.
- Tallades
(literally "sliced") covered with
sobrassada
and
pumpkin
, obtaining a bittersweet taste. It is typical of Carnival days, just before
Lent
, when meat (including lard and
sobrassada
) are not supposed to be eaten.
- Crema
(literally "cream") with cream made with eggs.
- Filled with sweet cream, chocolate or
turron
paste.
- Covered with
apricot
.
The Philippines
[
edit
]
The
Philippines
also adopted the Mallorcan
ensaimada
(commonly spelled
ensaymada
in
Philippine languages
). As a Spanish colony for over 300 years, the Philippine variant has evolved over the centuries and is perhaps one of the most common delicacies in the country.
[
dubious
–
discuss
]
The localized pastry is a
brioche
baked with butter instead of lard and topped with grated cheese and sugar and can be found in almost all neighborhood bakeshops. Other versions are topped with buttercream, salted egg slices, and a specially aged type of Edam cheese called
queso de bola
. The
ensaymada
of Pampanga features a very rich dough with layers of butter and cheese.
It is custom to eat
ensaymada
with
hot chocolate
made with native
tablea
during the Philippine Christmas season.
Due to its popularity,
[
dubious
–
discuss
]
bakeshop chains such as
Goldilocks
,
Red Ribbon
, Julie's, Pan de Manila, and Balai Pandesal offer
ensaymada
with their own recipes.
Puerto Rico
[
edit
]
In
Puerto Rico
, another Spanish colony until 1898, the
ensaimada
is called
pan de mallorca
[3]
and is traditionally eaten for breakfast or as an afternoon snack.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Types
| |
---|
Choux pastry
| |
---|
Puff pastry
| |
---|
Poppy seed
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|
By country
| Chinese
| |
---|
Filipino
| |
---|
French
| |
---|
Greek
| |
---|
Indonesian
| |
---|
Iranian
| |
---|
Italian
| |
---|
Romanian
| |
---|
Scandinavian
| |
---|
Swiss
| |
---|
Taiwanese
| |
---|
Turkish
| |
---|
|
---|
Related
topics
| |
---|
|