DONA EMILIA AND THE LARPEIRADAS

And although in old Spanish the word for baking, repostería, meant pantry, since the early 18th century, it is considered a delicate art, due to its wide variety of ingredients and presentations, and it has become an essential part of the cuisine that few larpeiros can resist.

If sugar is king, other ingredients are also leading players: eggs, milk, flour, butter, fruit, chocolate, essences, liqueurs, etc Ingredients that conspire to create delicacies to suit all tastes: ice-creams, pies, meringues, wafers, biscuits, creams, etc..

And  larpeiradas for any time of the year: Galician crêpes and pastry orejas at Carnival, roscón de Reyes bun cake at Epiphany, huesos de santo marzipan rolls filled with sweeten eggs yolks at All Saints, French toast at Easter, nougats and marzipan at Christmas, etc.

As well as being the first Spanish female professor and author of over 500 books, a reference in realist novels in Spain, Doña Emilia Pardo Bazán (1851-1921) was also the first woman to publish a book about cookery. And which eventually became two: “La cocina española antigua” (Traditional Spanish cooking) (1914) and “La cocina española moderna” (Modern Spanish cooking) (1918), which honour her condition as a proven expert and taster in the kitchen.

These books reflect her imaginative nature, christening some of her desserts with names like “ánimas del purgatorio” (purgatory souls) and “natillas de remolacha con isla perdida” (beetroot custard with lost island), as well as including traditional Galician recipes like Galician crêpes, along with advice and encouragement for the cooks that prepare them:

<<They should not be feared at all, and a careful housewife will prepare them at least once a month, alternating between the two, because as they are so nutritious, they can be served more than once, all things considered, without reproach>>.

Larpeirada does not define a dish or dessert; it is a very typical expression of ours which refers to a small irresistible pleasure: the larpeirada is sweet and delicious, more a pleasure than food; it can top off a meal or brighten up any moment…

The larpeirada cannot be separated from the Galician people or its desserts, in its extremely wide and tempting range; there is even “larpeira cake”.