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Ensaïmada

Ensaïmadas
Alternative names	Ensaimada
Course	Pastry
Place of origin	Mallorca,Balearic Islands,Spain
Serving temperature	Cold
Main ingredients	Flour,water,eggs,mother dough,saïm (reducedporklard)
Media: Ensaïmada

Theensaïmada is apastry product fromMallorca,Balearic Islands,Spain, commonly found insouthwestern Europe,Latin America and thePhilippines.

Theensaïmada de Mallorca is made with strongflour,water,sugar,eggs,mother dough and a kind of reducedporklard (calledsaïm inCatalan) 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.

The pastry apparently has a Jewish origin, deriving frombulemas, using lard instead ofolive oil as a means of escaping the suspicions of authorities during theInquisition.^[1] The first written references to the Mallorcanensaïmada date back to the 17th century. Thoughwheat flour was mainly used for makingbread, there is evidence this typical pastry product was made during that period for festivals and celebrations.

In Mallorca andIbiza, a sweet calledgreixonera is made withensaïmada pieces left over from the day before.^[2]

Among the variants ofensaimada the most common are:

• Llisa (literally "plain"), with no extra ingredients.
• Cabell d'àngel (literally "angel's hair"), the stringy orange strands found insidepumpkins are cooked with sugar to make a sweet filling which is rolled inside the dough.
• Tallades (literally "sliced"), covered withsobrassada andpumpkin for a bittersweet taste. It is typical ofCarnival days precedingLent, when meat (including lard andsobrassada) arenot to be eaten.
• Crema (literally "cream"), with a cream made from eggs.
• Filled with sweet cream, chocolate orturrón paste.
• Covered withapricot.

ThePhilippines also adopted the Mallorcanensaïmada (commonly spelledensaymada inPhilippine languages). As a Spanish colony forover 300 years, the Philippine variant has evolved over the centuries and is perhaps one of the country’s most common delicacies. The localized pastry is typically abrioche 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 withbuttercream,salted egg slices, and an aged Edam cheese calledqueso de bola. Theensaymada made inPampanga has a veryrich dough with layers of butter and cheese. While available year round,ensaymada duringFilipino Christmas is customarily paired withhot chocolate made from nativetablea.

Due to its popularity, bakeshop chains such asGoldilocks,Red Ribbon, Julie's,Pan de Manila, and Balai Pandesal offerensaymada with their own recipes.

InPuerto Rico, another Spanish colony until 1898, theensaïmada is calledpan de mallorca^[3] and is traditionally eaten for breakfast or as an afternoon snack.

• Bread culture in Spain
• Roscón de reyes

• Media related toEnsaïmada at Wikimedia Commons
• The ensaimada Report by MallorcaWeb, in English
• Artisan baker and ensaïmada chef, in English
• [1] General interest about ensaïmadas and vegetarianism, in English
• Traditional ensaïmada recipe Take a taste of Mallorca, in Spanish
• Traditional Ensaimadas of Pampanga, Philippines

• Balearic cuisine
• Culture of Mallorca
• Spanish pastries
• Philippine breads
• Spanish breads
• Spanish desserts

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