By Ines Keane
Say the word ensaimada in a Mallorcan bakery and you get a flat, coiled, sugar-dusted pastry. Say it in a Philippine bakery and you get something different. The name on a box in Mallorca is protected. What exactly it protects is easy to find in outline and harder to find in detail.
What the name says
The word comes from saïm, which the Balearic Islands’ official tourism site says is pork lard, “which gives the pastry its name”. A food-reference site agrees that the middle syllable is said to mean pig fat. Wikipedia describes saïm as a reduced pork lard, and says it is an ingredient, not only the root of the word.
The recipe, as the tourism board gives it
The tourism page lists “baking starch, water, sugar, eggs, sourdough” and saïm. Our reading: “baking starch” is a stiff English rendering of flour, but the page does not say so. It says the dough must rise for no less than 12 hours, is rolled helically clockwise, baked, and dusted with powdered sugar. The outside is crisp and golden-yellow, it says, and the inside soft and creamy.
A second source gives a different outline. The food-reference site describes a creamed mixture of butter, sugar and egg yolks combined with bread flour and a yeast sponge, rolled thin, coiled and baked in a greased, fluted mould. That is a general description of ensaimada as made in Spain and the Philippines, not the protected recipe, and it is the only one of the pages that gives butter. It also says the registered Mallorcan dough is roughly 45 to 55 per cent flour, 18 to 20 per cent water, 16 to 20 per cent sugar, 6 to 10 per cent eggs and 4 to 6 per cent yeast. We found no official page that confirms those percentages.
Wikipedia, an encyclopaedia, says the bread is made from strong flour, water, sugar, eggs and mother dough, with saïm, and that because production is by hand there is no exact formula: the baker’s scales set the proportion of each ingredient.
Two dates for the protection
The tourism board says the ensaimada has been protected since 2003 by an Indicación Geográfica Protegida (IGP). The food-reference site gives a European PGI date of 19 February 2004 and says the registered name is “Ensaimada mallorquina”. We show both. The Balearic government’s quality page lists the “Ensaimada de Mallorca” IGP and links to the product specification, but the page text we could read gave no facts from it, and we did not read the specification itself.
What the label means in territory is stated more simply. The tourism board gives the territory as all municipalities in Mallorca. The food-reference site says only loaves made in Mallorca may use the label. Our reading: a box with the protected name should come from the island, but without the specification we cannot say what the rules require of the dough.
What counts as an ensaimada, and what is a variant
According to the tourism board, the plain version, the lisa, is the original. Other versions it names are cream, chocolate, caramel, cabello de ángel (candied pumpkin), apricot or peach jam and, at Christmas, turrón. It says the IGP covers the traditional ensaimada and the version filled with cabello de ángel. It does not say whether the other fillings are covered, and we do not guess.
The page describes small ensaimadas as eaten at breakfast or with afternoon coffee, and large ones as dessert at celebrations. It gives no dimensions.
Christmas or Carnival?
The tallades, filled or topped with sobrasada and candied pumpkin, are where the sources split. The tourism board calls them typical at Christmas. Wikipedia says the tallades are typical of Carnival. Both agree on the filling. A reader planning a December table should treat the season as unsettled.
Boxes and bakeries
The tourism page mentions traditional bakeries and says ensaimadas are sold in typical octagonal boxes through airport shops. It says nothing about packing or carrying them, so we give no advice on that.
The name abroad
Wikipedia says the Philippines, a Spanish colony for over 300 years, has its own ensaimada: a brioche baked with butter instead of lard and topped with grated cheese and sugar. The food-reference site adds that the Filipino version is sold in individual portions and uses double the egg yolks. Wikipedia also says that in Puerto Rico the pastry is called pan de mallorca and is eaten for breakfast or as an afternoon snack. In the Philippines at Christmas it is customarily paired with hot chocolate made from native tablea, though no date is given.
None of this changes what a box from Mallorca should be, but it explains why the same word can mean different things in two shops.
The seventeenth century
The tourism board says the ensaimada was known in the 17th century, and Wikipedia says the first written references date to that century. The food-reference site says it was made by the 1600s, at first for special occasions because flour and fat were costly. Our reading: three pages that probably lean on each other, so we count them as one line of evidence.
Dates in order
- 17th century: first references, according to three pages.
- 2003: protected by an IGP, according to the tourism board.
- 19 February 2004: PGI date, according to the food-reference site.
What kind of sources these are
The Balearic tourism site, which promotes the island; the Balearic government’s quality page, which had little text; a food-reference site; and Wikipedia. We read none of the legal specification and none of a producer’s page.
Questions a buyer would ask
Is lard essential? The tourism board names saïm as the ingredient that gives the pastry its name. Are filled versions protected? The board says the traditional one and the cabello de ángel one. Can you buy one at the airport? The tourism page says octagonal boxes are sold in airport shops.
What we left out
Prices, bakery names, recipes with quantities for the home, a theory about the pastry’s origins that rests on religious history, and anything about shelf life.
Quick answers
What does ensaimada mean? The Balearic tourism site says the pastry takes its name from saïm, pork lard.
How long does the dough rise? The tourism site says no less than 12 hours.
Which fillings does the IGP cover? The tourism site says the traditional ensaimada and the version filled with cabello de ángel, candied pumpkin.
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Roam first. Shop later.