On a recent trip to Spain, I enjoyed polvorones (lard cookies) and turrón (nougat). Fantastic stuff!
It made me think about outstanding local flavors across Europe – the desserts and sweets that are locally treasured or may not be as prominent elsewhere.
Thanks for sharing! It would be great to learn and possibly recreate some of these recipes. Cheers.
Comments
Sticky toffee pudding
Raspberry cloud pie or forest moss pie are my favorites and I don’t think they’re known outside of Poland
Sure every one knows Princess cake from Sweden but in Sweden Ostkaka is well known and loved. It is translate to cheese cake but it actually a curd cake and it amazing with whipped cream and jam.
Now here is the problem, Småländsk is famous, and I dont like it as much as I love Östgötsk, difference is the amount of milk fat in it, Småländsk is leaner since Småland doesn’t have the best agricultural lands and there good reason many left for USA. Östergötland has rich soils and richer milk , so the curd cake is much more creamy, rich.
I do love the "second" kind of Ostkaka, Hälsingeostkakan. It has different texture it has more of Halloumi mouth feel and served sliced and as my grand aunt made it slightly caramelized flavour and served with cloudberry jam and cream. My dear grand aunt, used to fry the leftover the next day and have for breakfast with pork, she was bit odd.
Scottish tablet. It’s a crumbly milk fudge type sweet. Unbelievably sweet.
Empire biscuits. Two thin shortbread rounds sandwiched together, top iced and finished with a jelly sweet.
Clootie dumpling. A giant steamed dried fruit and lard pudding, that hangs in its boiling cloth ("cloot") until it develops a rind…
Cranachan. A layered dessert of oats, honey, whipped cream and raspberries.
I don’t think turrón counts as a secret lol with it being sold on every street corner.
If you like things that unapologetically taste like straight sugar oranjekoek is nice. Almond paste sandwiched in between two layers of shortbread-like pastry and topped with a layer of sugar glaze (which is usually pink, not orange, despite the pastry’s name) plus usually some whipped cream or buttercream on top.
From the province of Fryslân in the Netherlands: Fryske dúmkes (Frisian thumbs)! Anise flavoured cookies, a staple for tea.
Dampfnudeln (literal transl. Steamnoodle/Steamdumpling) which even most german restaurants don’t get right because they take hours.
It is a sweat dough with yeast that has to sit for hours and gets then steamed in a bath of sugared milk so the bottom of the dumpling caramelises. Served with homemade vanilla sauce and eaten with two forks so you can rip it apart an get more sauce on each piece.
If it’s not the softest thing you’ve ever eaten it’s not prepared right.
Definitely orasnice, one of the rare thing that are almost completely unique to these areas (Serbia plus ex-yu). Here is a recipe with English translation that is traditional. Essentially take milled wallnuts, mix with powder sugar and beaten egg whites. After that make small cookies out of that mix and cover it on the outside with not-so-finely chopped wallnut and bake it at low temperature. It’s pretty rare to make it nowadays, but a true gem, definitely worth it
Kouign-amann (butter cake) from Brittany is semi-famous but much less than the crêpes that are Brittany’s main dessert.
Basically, for a kouign amann, imagine a croissant dough the shape of a cake, with all its layers, absolutely drenched in sugar and butter and baked until slightly caramelized. It’s heavy, sweet, sticky, chewy and completely decadent, and a single bite will clog the arteries of the healthiest person on earth.
I don’t even think it’s a "well-kept secret", because it’s the single most talked about dessert when talking about Latvian food, but by nature of Latvian food not being a popular talking point, it’s not known outside of it.
The dessert is maizes zupa, translates to "bread soup". Quite simple to make and requires only a few ingredients – rye bread, water, sugar, cinnamon, whipped cream, cranberries and some dried fruits of choice. I can not call myself a dessert lover at all, but this one works for me perfectly, cause it balances a lot of different flavors that are not just "sweet". Recommend trying it!
Cornish puddings and Kernow curls from Cornwall, Whitby lemon buns from Whitby, and Grasmere gingerbread from the Lake District. I also love fat rascals from Yorkshire, and Sally Lunn buns with cinnamon butter from Bath.
I don’t know how widely known it may or may not be, but Gur Cake. It’s a traybake style cake with two layers of pastry, and in between them a filling made of stale bread and a small amount of flour, with spices, sugar and plenty of raisins, all soaked in black tea, and the lot is then baked. It sounds awful when I describe it, but trust me, it’s absolutely delicious.
Gur cake is what it’s called in Dublin, because it was a favourite with gurriers, which is a Dublin term for young fellows who would be up to no good. It has different names in other parts of Ireland. In some places they call it Chester cake, and in Cork I believe it’s known as Donkey’s Gudge.
Goxua (which means "sweet" in Basque) is a typical dessert from the Basque Country.
It consists of a base of whipped cream, one layer of sponge cake and a layer of caramelized custard.
They’re not a secret – on the contrary, they’re a staple in any traditional restaurant, but you won’t find them in tourist traps, nor will they have little specialised shops set up for them in touristy towns.
The first one is Baba de Camelo (Camel Drool for some reason…), which is a mousse made with caramelised condensed milk, eggs, and topped with crumbled biscuits. A fluffy delight to finish off you meal, and a perfect stage setter for your end-of-meal espresso.
The second one is known as Doce da Avó (Grandma’s Dessert) or Doce da Casa (more akin to House Specialty). It’s a layered dessert of condensed milk custard, frothy whipped cream, and biscuits soaked in coffee. It’s sweet, but more deceptively so, which makes it a popular alternative for those who think Baba de Camelo is too much.
Boterletter/banketletter/banketstaaf: puff pastry filled with almond spice and usually eaten around Sinterklaas (late November – early December). Can be eaten both warm and cold, but warm is the best imo.
Gevuld speculaas: another Sinterklaas classic. It’s almond spice sandwiched between two layers of speculaas dough. The dough contains cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, cardamom, ginger, anise and white pepper. Usually garnished with almonds.
Appelflappen: simple but awesome. It’s two triangular layers of puff pastry stuffed with apples and cinnamon. The top of the appelflap is often garnished with a bit of crystal sugar before it enters the oven. Best to be eaten warm.
Zeeuwse bolus: one of many local specialties of the province of Zeeland. It’s a roll of luxury white bread dough that is covered with dark brown sugar (mix between sugar and molassis), cinnamon is often added as well. The dough is chewy and the bolus itself is sticky. This dish actually has its roots in Spain and Portugal, as the predecessor of the bolus was brought over by Sephardic Jews in the 16th century.
Something traditionally Dutch that even the Dutch have almost forgotten is biest: the second milk of a cow after she gave birth to a calf (appr. from 12 hours after birthing. The first milk is called griest and is not fit for human consumption). It’s much fatter and creamier than regular milk, you have to very slowly heat it until boiling point (in Dutch this process is called "biest wellen") so it gets thick. If you do this well, it’s like very creamy vanillevla, really delicious. It’s eaten with sugar, or sugar, cinnamon and rusk.
Fun fact: if you keep heating it, biest will turn into a cheesecake like substance, which in Dutch is called lariekoek. (for Dutch speakers: I kid you not!)
Kalvdans is an incredibly simple dessert but it’s delicious
It’s made using colostrum, the first milk that an animal produces after giving birth, sugar, and cinnamon. The colostrum is mixed with sugar & a little bit of salt and is poured into a baking tray, the milk is generously dusted with cinnamon and is baked in the oven until the milk sets into a pudding-like consistency.
It’s served with whatever jam is one’s favourite. The consistency is like a pretty hard gel, and the texture is incredibly smooth.
Another favourite of mine is saffranspudding . It’s made by boiling roughly ground wheat in milk, sugar, and saffron. The mixture is mixed with eggs, and is baked in the oven. Typically served with whipped cream and jam – I typically go for cloudberry jam
From the Provence region :
I Croatia it depends on the region because food is very different between regions. On the coast that would be Kroštule (thin, flaky dough deep fried in oil and dusted with powdered sugar) and rafioli (thin, ravioli shaped pastry filled with almonds, orange zest and spices). In Slavonija salenjaci (lard dough filled with with plum jam). In Međimurje međimurska gibanica (layered pie filled with four types of filling: cheese, poppy seed, apples and walnuts). There is a lot of traditional desserts that are unique for its region and kind of hidden as they usually can’t be found in restaurants and similar places.