Asturias has been and is the birthplace of master bakers. Many of them have created deserts that have ended up becoming part of the public imagination and that already form part of our gastronomy. Every corner of the region, every town and village, has a typical sweet delicacy and a good number of patisseries.
If we had to choose three deserts to form a podium that would represent the region, those would be rice pudding, which can be found in any restaurant as a conclusion to a good meal, frixuelos, the sweet crêpes that used to be dusted in sugar but nowadays they are filled with hazelnut spread, cream, marmalade or whatever you want, and casadielles, fried dough filled with chopped nuts, honey or sugar and a dash of anise, you can add a bit of milk or butter if you wish.
If we enter the marvellous world of cakes, in almost all places, we will find the charlota cake, made with a base of sponge, cream and almond covered in chocolate and topped with cherries and above all in Gijón/Xixón, Gijonesa cake, in which the taste of turron predominates in its centre.
Here we are very "llambiones", or rather, we like sweet things, and each city and town have its own typical desserts.
Gijón/Xixón is the paradise of princesitas (marzipan and orange truffle sweets) and ice lollies. In Oviedo/Uviéu, it is essential to try two unbeatable creations. The first is carbayones, almond cakes covered in sugar syrup and lemon juice, and the second, moscovitas, which are a chocolate and almond delicacy. In Avilés, the Easter pastry rules, typical in Holy Week.
We have many workshops and culinary homages but almost all of them involve a salty product. The Rice Pudding Festival has been celebrated for over 30 years in Santolaya/Santa Eulalia in Cabranes, on the Sunday closest to 9 May. It involves a competition which over one hundred people participate in and it is supported by the menus that the catering establishments of the area offer over these days.
If we go further inland, in the municipality of Aller, you will be able to taste a unique dessert, "panchón", in Laviana, "bartolos" and in Mieres, the passerine municipalities, a sweet short pastry doughnut with milk. Path from the West, we find in Grado the famous "tocinillo de cielo", the "Carajitos" in Salas, that have achieved labelling themselves with the mark Alimentos del Paraíso, something that can also make "marañueles" of Candás y Lluanco/Luanco, some typical pastries based on butter, egg, sugar, flour and lemon zest, with the different that in Lluanco/Luanco, they only use the yolks.
And further afield, in Navia, don't miss out on the "Venera" cake, an almond cake which will have you licking your fingers. We can complete the list of sweets with "borrachinos", fried milk or "formigos".
If you want to make a good rice pudding at home, some practical tips could be taking out the cinnamon stick and the lemon peel half-way through cooking to prevent their taste from dominating the rest of the ingredients. And do stir the saucepan a lot.
When frying casadielles, it is important to do them one at a time or a maximum of two at a time, the oil should be very hot, and carefully flip them soon after putting them in because they burn very quickly.
If you choose to make frixuelos, the most important thing is that the pastry is not too light, leave it to rise for a few hours and use a non-stick frying pan to prevent it from sticking too much, and pour just the right quantity so that they are as thin as possible.
Fried Milk
Ingredients
- 1 litre of milk
- 1 egg yolk
- 120 gr. cornstarch
- 120 gr. sugar
- 1 dash of aniseed
- Flour
- Beaten egg
- Breadcrumbs
- Enough oil for frying
Preparation
- Mix the cornflour with the egg yolk and half a litre of milk in a large bowl, beat with a pastry whisk until you get a smooth, lump-free mixture.
- In a medium-sized saucepan, put the remaining half litre of milk, add the sugar and the dash of aniseed, if you like you can add a few cinnamon sticks, depending on the taste you want to give it, stir and heat the milk until it comes to the boil.
- Once the milk is boiling, add the mixture of cornflour, egg yolk and milk, stirring constantly with the whisk until the mixture begins to take consistency.
- Remove it from the heat and place it in a baking dish and leave it to cool in the fridge for approximately 2 hours. We will know that the mixture is ready when it has turned into a solid block.
- Take it out of the pastry case and cut it into small cubes, the size of the cubes is optional, it will depend on the taste of each person.
- Once the cubes are ready, coat them in flour, egg and breadcrumbs.
- Heat the oil in the fryer or in a frying pan, but do not put the pieces in until it is very hot.
- Fry them until the batter is golden brown and remove them to a plate to drain the oil.
- Our fried milk is now ready to serve and enjoy.
- It is important to remember that this is a dessert that is eaten hot, so we must keep a close eye on the time.
Leche Frita can be enjoyed in all "Tierra Astur" cider houses: Gascona, 1 and Gascona, 9 in Oviedo/Uviéu; Polígono del Águila del Nora in Colloto/Cualloto (Siero); Mariano Pola, 10-12-14 Gijón/Xixón and San Francisco, 4 Avilés.