Sweets | Page 11 of 11
Pardulas: Sardinian Ricotta Pastries
Pardulas are small Sardinian pastries of pinched dough, filled with sheep's milk ricotta flavored with saffron and citrus zest and baked golden. Originally an Easter sweet that children were given on All Souls', they are baked in Sardinia all year round today - and the name and the filling change with every part of the island: in some places they are filled with fresh cheese, in others raisins go in too. What they are named after is still anybody's guess.
Crostata: The Italian Lattice Tart
Crostata is an Italian tart of crumbly pastry with a layer of jam or custard and a lattice of pastry strips on top. At home it's baked on Sundays, in a bar it's served with coffee, and in a bakery you buy it by weight. It is named after the crust, not the filling, and it appears under that name in 15th-century Italian recipe books. Its closest relative is the Austrian Linzer Torte.
Gueffus: Sardinian Almond Balls in Colorful Wrappers
Gueffus are Sardinian almond balls: ground almonds, sugar and lemon zest are simply cooked in a pot, rolled, coated in sugar, and each ball is twisted up in a colorful fringed wrapper like a sweet. They're made all over Sardinia under several names, and they belong at weddings, christenings and Christmas - and the legend about the battlements on the wrapper was invented by a novelist.
Delizia al Limone: The Lemon Dessert of Sorrento and Amalfi
Delizia al limone is a lemon dessert from the Italian region of Campania: two sponge domes sandwiched with lemon cream, soaked in limoncello syrup and coated in a thick lemon glaze. It was created in 1978 by the Sorrento pastry chef Carmine Marzuillo, and it nearly ended up being called a lemon sigh. Today the whole coast from Sorrento through Amalfi to Naples claims it.
Antica Gelateria Sorrentina: A Family Gelateria in Sorrento
On via Fuoro in Sorrento, an older gentleman and a sign claiming 1860 lure you into a small gelateria. Nobody can prove the date, but the documented version is the nicer one: the Gargiulo family once sold milk here, and from milk it was a short step to gelato. Today the third generation makes it, and the flagship flavor is crema amalfitana, a milky cream with lemon.
Spa Wafers: A Crisp Sweet from Karlovy Vary and Other Spa Towns
Spa wafers are two thin round sheets of crisp dough stuck together with a sweet filling of sugar, nuts, cinnamon or chocolate. Karlovy Vary has the oldest record of baking them, and a protected designation that demands thermal spring water in the dough, but it was Mariánské Lázně that gave them the shape they have today. Where the wafers got their name, why three countries fought over them, and why you should buy the warm one on the colonnade.
Churros: Spanish Fried Dough Dipped in Hot Chocolate
Churros are long ridged sticks of choux-style dough made of flour, water and salt, piped straight into hot oil and dipped in thick hot chocolate. In Spain they belong to breakfast and to the morning after a long night, not to the dessert menu. The article explains where the name comes from, regional variants like porras and tejeringos, the relatives in Portugal and Latin America, and the documented history that starts with the churrerías of 19th-century Madrid.
La Pecera: Japanese Taiyaki with Ice Cream in Madrid
La Pecera, an ice cream shop in Madrid's Malasaña, pipes soft serve into freshly baked taiyaki cones - a fish-shaped Japanese pastry. It has nothing to do with Spanish cuisine; it swam into Madrid the long way round, via Instagram in New York. Where the fish-shaped sweet came from, why its name is tied to good luck, and what a warm cone with ice-cold soft serve tastes like.
Macarons de Saint-Émilion: Convent Macarons Without a Filling
In the wine village of Saint-Émilion they bake a macaron with no cream, no coloring and no second half - just coarsely ground almonds, egg whites and sugar. The recipe has supposedly been guarded since 1620 by a convent of Ursuline nuns, though these days the box makes the case better than any archive. What does the original version of France's famous sweet taste like, and why can't you buy it outside Bordeaux?
Canelé: The Bordeaux Treat With a Caramel Crust
Canelé is a small fluted cylinder from Bordeaux, baked in a copper mold until the crust is almost black and the center is like custard. Its name comes from the flutes on classical columns, its origin from a legend about nuns and from a guild that was forbidden to use milk and sugar.