Valencian dessert recipes

Here are ten Valencian sweet recipes to pick from according to the time you have and the technique you fancy: one is fried, the rest go in the oven and some need a dough that rests. Each recipe gives its quantities, the steps with their timings and the published sources it draws on, and you can change the number of servings with the calculator.

Yeast doughs: aroma and patience

These are the ones that ask for the most resting. The mona de Pascua begins with a starter made the day before, has orange blossom water and orange in it, and bakes for 25 minutes at 180 °C. The fartons are long rolls, ten pieces that double as they prove; they bake for 12 minutes, dropping from 225 to 200 °C, and are glazed while hot. The panquemado has two rises, the first of two to three hours, and bakes for about 25 minutes at 200 °C. The All Saints fogassa combines sweet potato and aniseed in a dough that proves until it doubles; it bakes for 25 to 30 minutes at 180 °C, in an oven preheated to 200 °C first. The source gives no time for that rise, and the recipe says so.

Pumpkin and sweet potato: frying, filling and the oven

The pumpkin fritters are the frying option: roasted pumpkin, a 30-minute rest for the batter and sugar on top. If you would rather use the oven, the arnadí starts from pumpkin roasted the day before and drained overnight; it is made in a casserole and finished in the oven, five minutes at 180 °C and then 45 to 60 minutes at 150 °C, in individual moulds or small dishes. The sweet potato pastissets have a sweet potato filling with cinnamon, best made the day before, inside a dough of spirit and oil that bakes for 15 to 20 minutes at 200 °C.

Sponge, almond and scalded dough

The coca de llanda is a tray-bake sponge of egg, oil and milk, for a 20 × 30 cm tin and 35 minutes at 180 °C. The coca Cristina is a different kind of bake: meringue, ground almonds, flour and milk on wafers about 15 cm across, 15 to 20 minutes at 180 °C and six pieces. The Vega Baja almojábanas come from a scalded dough of water, oil and flour worked with eggs; they make 15 pieces, baked for 30 to 35 minutes at 270 °C and dipped in orange blossom honey.

How to use the collection

Each recipe cites its published sources and flags any detail where two sources disagree. The calculator rescales the quantities to the number of servings you enter, and the shopping list downloads as a CSV with those adjusted quantities. The PDF, on the other hand, comes with the recipe’s base servings and is not recalculated: if you are cooking for more or fewer people, use the CSV.

If a company lunch or a celebration needs more than a recipe, at Xepep you will find our Christmas parties for companies service, and you can get a quote. And the recipe collection has more Valencian cooking, such as the rice and paella recipes.