The oil and anise cakes are a symbol of Sevillian pastries and one of the only four products with the seal of Guaranteed Traditional Specialty of Spain (along with Serrano ham, farm milk and panellets). Originally the fruit of the use, as they were cooked with the residual heat of bread ovens, the crunchy and subtly flaky anise cakes, more than a century ago they became popular in such a way that several commercial brands and many bread makers were born. They started selling them. Today, we even see them on restaurant menus, accompanied by sweet preparations or savory ingredients, such is their versatility and acceptability, since they are vegan (they do not contain eggs or lactose), they are baked, and most do not contain artificial additives.
There are three best-known anise cakes in Spain: Inés Rosales, Andrés Gaviño and San Martín de Porres. The first two, centuries old, use only extra virgin olive oil in their recipe (24% and 21%, respectively), in addition to wheat flour, water, sugar, anise, salt, sesame and anise essence to enhance their flavor. . The remaining one advocates sunflower oil in its traditional version, but also offers some cakes with EVOO, as well as others without sugar, with almonds and multigrain. The variants, in the case of Andrés Gaviño, are with orange, with lemon and cinnamon, with almonds and, as a salty option, with rosemary or with sesame and salt. And in Inés Rosales’s, with orange, with cinnamon, with lemon, with organic cane sugar, and with rosemary and thyme or sesame and sea salt, as well as the traditional version without sugar.
We owe the success of the oil and anise cakes to Inés Rosales, the entrepreneur from Castilleja de la Cuesta, in Seville’s Aljarafe, who in 1910 recovered the family recipe for the cakes and began selling them, with the help of other women, at a crossroads, between La Pañoleta and the old train station of Seville, where they stood with their wicker baskets with their ‘Legitimate and Accredited Inés Rosales cakes’. Unfortunately, Rosales died prematurely in 1934, but his brother Esteban would take over the reins of the business until in 1985 four partners would buy it and Juan Moreno Tocino, a merchant marine officer, would take over management to get the company out of a slump and Moving, in 1991, the facilities to Huévar del Aljarafe, since the increase in sales required a larger space.
Through the Guaranteed Traditional Specialty seal, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food recognizes the product and has the objective of protecting both its recipe and production methods, both faithful to tradition. The only one of the three brands that complies with the ETG regulations is Inés Rosales (although Andrés Gaviño also maintains artisanal production), where the farmers, that is, the women who work making the cakes, flatten them by hand, “leaving their imprint” and achieving a shape of about 13 centimeters in diameter and a thickness that varies between one and seven millimeters, reaching its largest size at the perimeter, where the cake is slightly alveolated. “The darkest areas correspond to the thinnest parts of the product,” the brand explains.
In addition, they claim that they ‘roll’ them by hand, that is, they wrap them one by one, with that characteristic waxed paper that is printed in blue with the brand logo, a color that also colors many other oil and anise cakes. , as the gastronomic communicator Anna Mayer investigated: “it would have to do with the neighborhood where the cakes were made at the beginning: the Virgen neighborhood, in Castilleja. Because Castilleja is divided between blues and reds, between the Virgin (of the Immaculate Conception) and the Apostle (James), the Brotherhood of Calle Real and the Brotherhood of the Plaza.” Given Rosales’ great success, her competitors imitated her in everything, even in their brand colors.
Restaurants such as the recently triple-starred Enjoy have been inspired by the classic oil and anise cakes to prepare one of their dishes, the Crispy Idiazábal Cheese Cake, where they use the microwave crisping technique to achieve a fine cheese foam cake that they accompany with a whipped cream of the same, and they have, “to complete the visual game and remember sweet cakes”, a paper stamped with the seal of the restaurant on which they serve their cake.
The light sweetness of the oil and anise cakes means that different cooks have thought about combining them with cheese, sausages or even mushrooms and hedgehogs. This is the case of Fino Bar (Barcelona), where Alberto Ibáñez serves it hot, with Soler Capella beef sobrasada, and with a cloud of smoked cheese. They finish it with a few drops of olive oil, black pepper and chickweed. They were clear about their bet: Ibáñez, a native of Valencia, explains that “in the Valencian Community it is very popular to add anise to processed meats, such as sausages, and that is the most characteristic aroma of Inés Rosales cakes.” He also explains that he always wanted to have a coke in his bar “to claim a snack that is so much ours and because I come from a family of pastry chefs.”
However, the limitations of the premises forced simplicity, and he recalled how chef José Andrés uses these cakes, “which offer an infinite range of combinations, both cold and hot, with raw or cured products, salted products, dairy products or sausages.” ”. Thus, we read one of his recipes in 10 years of Masterchef: recipes from the great chefs to cook at home (Espasa, 2022), where he combines it with a Gamoneu and Rey Silo cheese cream, amanita, sea urchin, black truffle, hazelnut vinaigrette, and fresh herbs such as basil, dill, cilantro and micro mizuna. For its part, at the restaurant La Vinografía de Javier, in Véjer (Cádiz), they serve it Mexican style, with tuna pibil, pickled onion, a poached egg, shichimi togarashi and sprouts.
