The Best Breakfast in Mallorca

When talking of what best to accompany a morning coffee, nothing surpasses the ensaïmada. This traditional spiral shaped breakfast pastry, produced in Mallorca since the 17th Century, still sells out in many bakeries across the island before mid morning. With its recipe handed down through generations of bakers, the characteristics of the ensaïmada are so inherent to Mallorca that in 2004 it was awarded PGI status (Protected Geographical Indication) by the European Commission. Some 58 bakeries across the island now carry the “Ensaïmada de Mallorca Official Guarantee”. Everything from its weight and ingredients, right down to the direction in which it is curled and the pictures on the box in which it is sold, have to adhere to the requirements of the Regulating Council.

Ensaimadas are in Pau Llulls blood. A fourth generation baker, his family have been the owners of “Forn Fondo” in Palma since 1911. “Making ensaïmadas is not as easy as you think”, he says, smiling at the suggestion of trying to make them at home. The “mother dough”, comprising flour, sugar, eggs and fat is stretched out by hand until it is paper thin. This is then smeared with “saïm”, the Catalan word for lard. Fillings such as pumpkin jam known as ‘angel hair’, or the Mallorcan homemade sausage ‘sobrassada’ are then spread over the dough, or it is left plain. It is then carefully rolled up and left to rest.

Francisco Molero has been making ensaïmadas at Forn Fondo for the past 30 years. Together with co pastry chef, Miguel Martinez, he makes at least 300 small and 100 large ensaïmadas a day and insists it is not something you can learn overnight but takes years of practice. Jaime Llull, Pau's father, spends most of his afternoons curling the filled dough tubes into the traditional ensaïmada form, so that they can rise overnight and be baked the following morning.

“We get many special requests for ensaïmadas”, says Pau. “Apart from the traditional varieties, we make them will all kinds of fillings when asked, like fruit or even red peppers! The sugar is always put on last, right when the customer comes in to purchase, so they are always perfectly fresh”. Pau goes on to explain that even the boxes they are put in can only show traditional Mallorcan pictures and bear the name Mallorca if produced from a bakery bearing the “Ensaïmada de Mallorca” guarantee. “People need to be protected from machine made versions, and worse, frozen ensaïmadas!” he laughs.

So, next time you sit down with your morning coffee, you’ll be glad to know that in today’s world, full of replicas, at least part of your breakfast is guaranteed to be an original. Forn Fondo is located at No.15 along Palma’s Calle Unió.