Luis Blasco Alis Madrid

Carlos Onetti (Video)

Madrid

Updated Thursday, March 21, 2024-00:04

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  • Mythical dishes (III) The divinely inspired dessert that they create in this restaurant with 60 years of history

  • Mythical dishes (III) The tortilla that earned a place on the menu of the Romero brothers' gourmet restaurant

It doesn't matter when you pass by number eight of Madrid's

Puerta del Sol

.

There is almost always a line to enter La Mallorquina.

If the calendar shows dates close to Easter, the line is 100% guaranteed.

The person responsible for these long lines during the most religious week of the year are their classic torrijas.

Classic because in the four locations that the century-old pastry shop has, they are not made any other way.

"We always make the traditional ones," confirms

Alberto Bartolomé

, head of the workshop at La Mallorquina.

So traditional that it only has bread, milk, sugar, cinnamon and egg.

And nothing more.

The key, according to Bartolomé, is bread.

"It is the secret of torrija. It is a

special

bar , very spongy so that when you eat the torrija it is soft and well loaded with milk," he summarizes.

Unlike in homes, where bars from the previous day are used to avoid

waste

, at La Mallorquina they cook the bars

ad hoc

to make this sweet.

"We make them daily," adds Bartolomé.

Thousands of bars, each weighing

800 grams

and fermented for 24 hours, leaving the central workshop, where 15 people work, destined for the pastry shops in the capital.

The frying of the torrija, one of the keys to the sweet. Carlos Onetti

After dipping the thick slices in milk, which has previously been infused for a day with

cinnamon sticks and sugar

, they are dipped in egg and fried in olive pomace oil for a maximum of 30 seconds.

"By putting it at high temperature, frying is very fast," he explains.

This means that the torrija does not absorb the flavor of the oil and, at the same time, maintains its characteristic sponginess.

The last step is to 'batter' it in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.

And they have been doing it this way for "more than 30 years", always with the same recipe, coming "from the history of the bakery", says José Laguna, spokesperson for the confectionery.

Three months a year

Although the torrijas season begins strictly at

Easter

, in La Mallorquina they have been making them since after Epiphany.

"This year the season started on January 10," recalls Alberto.

"Every year we start earlier," he jokes.

The stores, which start frying the sweet at 7:30 in the morning and do not stop until 7:00 in the afternoon, will not stop selling this characteristic sweet until after the

holidays

.

According to Alberto's calculations, "until April 15, more or less," they can continue to be taken.

In the three long months that the season lasts, the four stores run by the third generation of the Quiroga and Gallo families can sell more than

45,000 units

of this sweet.

On the holidays of

Easter Week

(from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday) about 15,000 are shipped.

"Those days are crazy," says one of the clerks at Puerta del Sol, the store that sells the most with almost half of them.

The influx is such that they have opened a window on Calle Mayor to sell in

take-away

mode .

Although some customers ask for a

new recipe

, at La Mallorquina they are faithful to the classic one.

"Because of our volume and what is demanded, we do the usual one, which is the one that works best for us," explains Alberto.

The typical customer of the pastry shop is still far away from

young people

, who "have not yet gotten the taste" for this dessert, says Alberto.

Yes, there are many older people who have been eating torrija all their lives.

A customer who year after year waits, like octogenarian

Juan José

, for the day to come when they can once again have a sweet like the "homemade one his mother made."

Although you have to wait a long time in line.