Obrador.Esstela puff pastry or where to eat the best millefeuille in the capital
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It's fluffy, creamy, and luscious.
It has an intense almond and hazelnut flavor and is made with a careful selection of raw materials.
This is the essence of Ascaso's Russian cake, the jewel of this family business that was born in Huesca 130 years ago.
"
A year we sell about 80,000
", explains Sura Ascaso, fourth generation in charge of the pastry shop.
And up.
They have been making it
since 1974
.
"When my parents took over the business
in the 60s, they began to see trends from abroad
. They traveled a lot, visited fairs and introduced a lot of new product in the store."
Vicente, Sura's grandfather, had already brought the cream to the windows of his establishment and made some ensaimadas that gained great fame.
"France was one of the destinations they went to the most and there they tasted the Russian cake."
They were excited.
Back in Huesca, and faced with the refusal of their French colleagues to give them the recipe, their father Vicente and the master pastry chef of the house for 50 years, Antonio Oliván, began to do tests until they "came up with his master formula", that which is still a secret today.
"
It contains hazelnut, almond, egg white, praline foam and our particular touch
," says Sura, who together with his sister Lourdes and his brother-in-law Antonio García, a master chocolatier, is currently running the business.
The origin of this cake is French, "it is documented in the Franco-Russian alliance of the 19th century, although there are many legends".
Historical photo of a delivery man from Ascaso in Huesca.
The fame of the product spread like wildfire through the city and beyond.
Also of chocolates, nougats, pastries ... "In 1990 we opened a store in Zaragoza and later in Madrid -in 2015-".
Despite the name,
the Russian cake has become a national classic like the Santiago cake
, of which they have not modified anything since '74 except the packaging, which has made it much more sustainable, reducing plastic to the maximum and using cardboard backed by the Responsible Forest Management seal.
"
It is a cake that travels very well and that allows us to send it to all of Spain without problem
", points out this philologist by training and pastry chef by vocation.
In his store in the capital, as in Huesca and Zaragoza, he is the undisputed star.
And it can be found in a multitude of gourmet stores throughout Spain.
The Kings Felipe and Letizia and the Emeritus, the actor Richard Gere and leaders of half the world have fallen in love with this sweet.
"At the Seville Expo, the Latin American heads of state and government drank it in one of the meals in the Aragon pavilion. It has also been served in some Olympic Games," explains Sura proudly.
At Ascaso they boast of being a "
gourmet sweet laboratory
", where tradition and innovation have found the perfect complicity.
The pandemic has put them to the test.
"We are closed from March to May."
Commerce 'on line' and home delivery allowed them to maintain the rate
.
"Now we only think about continuing to work and keep our entire staff -42 people-".
Interior of the Madrid store.
If Manuel Ascaso had been told that that humble bakery that started in Huesca in 1890 was going to make half of Spain sigh, surely he would not believe it.
Nor that their chocolate would be sold at the Thyssen Museum together with the Catalina de Aragón crown, a circular marzipan cake with rose water that they made inspired by Juan de Flandes's painting 'Portrait of an Infanta, Catalina de Aragón'.
The fourth generation still has a lot of history to tell ...
Ascaso pastry shops
: Coso Alto, 9, in Huesca;
Architect Yarza, 5, in Zaragoza;
and Zurbano, 25 (corner C / Caracas), in Madrid.
Price: 9.90 euros (300 gr) and 15.40 (500 gr).
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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