From the Source - Spain by Lonely Planet

Author:Lonely Planet
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781760341756
Publisher: Lonely Planet
Published: 2016-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

Convents and monasteries have always played an important role in Spanish affairs, not least because of historical ties to the aristocracy, who would once pack off their unmarried or disgraced daughters to a convent, along with a handsome wedge of funding. Traditionally these convents would be called upon to provide cakes and sweetmeats for the feasts of the nobility, and this grew to become a cottage industry on an immense scale. To this day, closed orders of nuns all over Spain sell confectionery via revolving wooden turntables that allow them to remain invisible behind the convent walls.

Crumbly polvorónes (almond cookies), delicate wafers and flaky palmiers (palm-leaf-shaped crisp pastries) are all wrapped in waxed paper and swivelled through the turntables from sacred ground into the temporal world outside, along with the rich, sweet yellow balls known as yemas (egg yolks) de Santa Teresa. The origins of the name are disputed, but mostly believed to be a canny bit of medieval marketing, commemorating Spain’s best-loved saint of the age. In Ávila, Saint Teresa’s birthplace and where she founded the order of barefoot Carmelite nuns, yemas are ubiquitous.

‘The basic recipe hasn’t changed much,’ says Isabel Hernández, in the patisserie set up by her grandfather. ‘Egg yolk, sugar and a little lemon. But everyone adds their own touch – some bakers add cinnamon, others glaze them… Ours are handmade, so there are always slight variations.’ She rolls them into balls, dusting them with icing sugar and placing them in small paper cases. These, in turn, are arranged in pretty boxes, stamped with the council of Castilla y León’s hard-won seal of approval. ‘There are certain things any visitor to Ávila shouldn’t miss out on,’ says Isabel. ‘Wandering around the palaces and convents, but also picking up a box of these to take back home.’

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