The Selva region’s love affair with sweet tastes is a long-standing relationship. It is no coincidence that such a high quantity and quality of pastries and sweets coexist in a single territory.

Background

The tradition of sweets from La Selva dates back to the late 19th century, when old bread ovens began to incorporate new production techniques that allowed them to imagine and prepare recipes that were not possible until then.

First in Santa Coloma de Farners and later throughout La Selva, original cookies and cakes began to emerge from establishments, many of which still exist today and are centuries old.

Today’s sweets and cakes

It can be said that currently in La Selva all municipalities have a pastry shop where traditional, quality sweets are made that incorporate local ingredients, such as hazelnuts, milk or ratafia.

The sweet route

If you can’t resist a good artisanal cake or you are simply a fan of sweets, you have a route that you cannot ignore.

This is La Ruta + Dolça: a tour of 8 Selvatano towns and their most characteristic pastries.

Let’s start the route! In Santa Coloma de Farners we will taste the famous Teules: small and crunchy almond cookies. In Vilobí d’Onyar we have the Tosquigets: pastries with nuts and chocolate.

We will pass through Caldes de Malavella to have a bite of the Tortada de Malavella: made with sparkling thermal water and hazelnuts from the region. We will continue south to Vidreres , where the Morenetes await us: little sponge cakes filled with butter cream and chocolate coating.

The next stop will take us to Sils where Fang dels Estanys is made: crunchy almonds, egg whites and sugar. We will continue east until we reach Breda with its Xerrics: a biscuit that crunches between the teeth with each bite and with a hazelnut and sugar base.

We will leave the crunchy ones behind to have a bite of the fluffy Arbúcies sponge cake and we will finish the tour in Sant Hilari Sacalm . Here we will have the tasty opportunity to salivate with the Aromes de Sant Hilari and the Coca del Medi Ambient. The Aromes are an assortment of cookies with different flavors such as: hazelnut, almond or coconut among others; while the Coca del Medi Ambient is an aniseed brioche with sugar coating and chocolate shavings.

The nutritional properties

No study has been conducted regarding the nutritional properties of the Selva sweets. However, it should be noted that the sweets usually contain high percentages of carbohydrates (40 to 70%) and lipids (15 to 30%). Although they are made with natural ingredients, their consumption should be occasional.

The region of La Selva has been a Catalan benchmark in the production of artisanal sweets since the early 20th century. In most municipalities there is one or more artisanal pastry shops that have created more than fifty distinctive sweets of the municipality. Many of the sweets are linked to historical events (Capricis d’Amer or Ava Gardner’s Kisses) or to local products such as ratafia .

For the most part, the sweets are made using natural ingredients (without additives or preservatives) and modern techniques. In some bakeries, the formulas have remained unchanged since the time of our great-grandparents.