Spanish Chocolate Filled Puff Pastry

On my last full day in Spain I took a local bus to Elche, a city famous for its palm trees located 30 minutes inland from Santa Pola.

I decided to wait to have breakfast until I reached my destination so I could go in search for a sweet treat. It was another sunny day in Spain so I wanted to get something to take away for breakfast so I could sit in the park under a palm tree and enjoy it.  I stumbled across this takeaway bakery which sold an array of sweet and savoury pastries. The bakery wasn’t any different to the others I found in Spain but it was 10am and I was getting a little hungry. Unfortunately they didn’t do coffee so I had to get that elsewhere but I picked up a chocolate filled puff pastry which I noticed are popular in this region of Spain as they can be found in most bakeries and supermarkets.

You could say that this pastry looks like a pain au chocolat but it tasted a lot different. The pastry shell was light and flaky like an apple turnover but a little less sweet. I found that the cakes and pastries in Spain aren’t as sweet as their other European counterparts, such as those found in the patisseries of France or Italy. 

The chocolate filling was very deceiving as it looked like the pastry was generously filled with chocolate but on closer inspection I found that this was not the case. The filling contained only a small amount of chocolate with the majority spilling out the side which lead to the impression that the pastry was overloaded with chocolate which was particularly disappointing. In the same way as the pastry, the chocolate wasn’t as sweet as one might expect and a little hard and crispy, certainly not ‘melt in your mouth’.  I’m not sure whether this is due to a chemical being added to the chocolate to stop it from melting in the Spanish heat, like seen in other hot countries but it certainly didn’t taste as nice. Interestingly, the chocolate drizzle on top of the pastry tasted a lot nicer and as you can see from the photo, it did melt, with most of it ending up on the paper bag!

Another thing I found in Spain was that pastries are covered in a clear jelly glaze like you would find on top of a Danish pastry.  Although this has little taste, I didn’t like the texture of this and unfortunately it ruined the pastry for me.

I could tell that the pastry was freshly made that morning and it certainly filled a hole and left me satisfied until lunch time but overall I was a little disappointed with it, like I was with every other Spanish cake or pastry I tried. Spain has some wonderful food but if you are looking for the best sweet treats, I would go elsewhere.

Living life, loving cake,

H x