Foods to Eat in Spain - Madrid

- Pastas de Consejo -

Pastas de Consejo are known as a typical sweet of Madrid, though in reality, they more resemble and taste like biscuits. These 'sweets' have a crumbly shortbread-like texture (though are a bit more dense) and a lovely lemon aroma. However, somewhat surprisingly, when actually tasting it, the lemon flavour is quite muted with the a buttery flavour being more dominant.

Initially called Pastas del Senado, they were later changed to Pastas de Consejo during the reign of Alfonso XII as he liked to consume them during the regency council, which he attended with his mother, the queen. From then onward, it was regularly associated with state council meetings and is now often made in the shape of the letter C or a double spiral (as seen in the photo).

In terms of places to buy Pastas de Consejo, there is one obvious choice, which is El Riojano (mentioned previously here) as they were the original suppliers of this 'sweet' to the royal family. Since then, little has changed, from the overall aesthetics of the shop to the recipe of their sweets and pastries. So if the Pastas de Consejo made here were good enough for Alfonso XII, they are definitely good enough for us (they also make a great souvenir, especially as El Riojano still packages their products traditionally with wax ribbon and all).

Failing that, most good bakeries in Madrid will also sell this such as Casa Mira or La Mallorquina. In this age of uniform production, most of the pastries from the top five or so bakeries in Madrid have similar quality products so you don't have to worry too much about going to the most historic bakery as they will all likely taste very similar.