In addition to being born where they want, those from Bilbao can also baptize a dish with the name of an ingredient that does not appear in the recipe. Asking what is in a rice cake may sound quite absurd, but it turns out that this typical sweet from Bizkaia and its capital is not made with rice. Its origin and the reason for that name that plays misleading is part of the charm of a cake that, together with butter buns, is never missing in the windows of pastry shops or in the bars of the bars at breakfast or dinner time. hamaiketako.
The importance of this cake in Bilbao's sweet culture is such that it not only has its own identity, but is also the base of the famous carolina -crowned with meringue and strips of egg yolk and chocolate- and apple pie. The fact is that rare is the tray of cakes in which "one of rice" is missing. At least in the pastry shops that have survived the plague of cafeteria-bakeries that, as in so many other cities, has also devastated Bilbao with many of the neighborhood businesses based on cheap and bad cakes.
One of the protagonists of this story worked for years in one of them. At least in the most personal aspect of it, because Filo Bañuelos -my mother, to be exact- was a witness and helper many early mornings in the elaboration of the rice cakes of the San Inazio pastry shop. According to her, the best in all of Bilbao and, things related to family and memory, have thus been institutionalized for me.
Maybe they weren't the best, but leaving the bilbainadas aside when talking about rice cake is complicated. The fact is that she continues to defend that this cake, made up of a puff pastry casserole and a kind of pastry cream, is perfect for measuring the quality of a pastry shop. The simplicity in its preparation and the few necessary ingredients make it easy to detect if we are in a proper place or better to go out the door.
Philippines, Portugal…
Some of those left over from the previous day arrived at the house. It is a cake that, when good, ages very well. With a touch of oven that restores a certain texture to the puff pastry and tempers the interior, it is very good. Why are they called rice? The theory that has often been taken for granted is that in the past rice flour was used for the cream inside, but it was later replaced by wheat flour.
An explanation that would clarify the apparent nonsense of the name. Some even up the ante and give an exotic touch to the origin of this rice flour, assuring that it was the Bilbao sailors returning from the Philippines who brought this ingredient to the city.
This possible Asian connection to the cake not only gives it a certain epic but, with the occasional historical and geographical pirouette, it could serve to explain the suspicious resemblance of these Bilbao rice cakes to Portuguese pastels de nata. Are the pasties from Belem the distant cousins of the ones from Bilbao, although with a crunchy and more laminated puff pastry, and the addition of cinnamon?
It is not, in fact, the only pastry relationship between the two places. The "Jesuit" from Bilbao also has its Portuguese cousin, especially in Porto where a very similar cake is known by the same name or as "seminarista".
That is another story, but it is a wonderful pillar for this theory that, going up a couple of steps, would lead us to ask ourselves if the egg tarts that are so popular in Hong Kong and Macao thanks to the Portuguese influence in the area, are nothing but distant descendants of Bilbao rice cake.
And the rice?
From the Bizkarra pastry shop in Bilbao, they lower the enthusiasm of the idea a bit. Actually, rice cake and cream cake are very different. “They have a certain common appearance, but they are different in everything: in cooking, in preparation, in the puff pastry…”, explains Eduardo Bizkarra. Also at first glance it is easy to differentiate, he points out.
"In the rice cake the upper part is a velvety layer, generated by the cooking of the butter and milk itself, while the finish of the pastel de nata is like that of a custard, since, in the cooking of the cream, the eggs and the rest of the ingredients are generated as a toasted film”.
Anyway, there is an alternative to the Filipino theory that explains the name of the cake. Less exotic but surely more real. The denomination is due to the fact that these tartajeas were originally filled with rice pudding. This was one of the specialties of the Café Suizo in Bilbao. The same place where, indeed, the famous butter bun also took its first steps.
According to the journalist and gastronomic history expert Ana Vega in an article on the origin of this cake, the 1930 El Amparo recipe book signed by the Azcaray Eguileor sisters includes this original recipe with the rice pudding filling.
And, in a script twist that is as unexpected as it is almost painful for anyone who champions the Bilbao and Biscayan purity of this cake, Vega recalls that the current filling corresponds to the so-called Vitoria cream, made from eggs, sugar, milk and butter. It is poured into the puff pastry tart -raw or something made depending on the thickness- and the whole set is baked.
If someone is encouraged to prepare them at home, it is relatively simple. Vega's recipe with David de Jorge on the Robin Food television program is one of the best that can be found on the net, where soulless recipes abound in search of the clueless click of someone who has never tried an authentic Bilbao rice cake.
The real rice cake
But back to the name and the recipe, there is an exception for this rice cake without rice. And it is that, since 2017 and coinciding with its 60th anniversary, the Bizkarra pastry shop presented a version in which rice flour is used. A tribute to that legend about the original recipe and which, apparently, turned out to be quite complex.
"We find ourselves with quite a few difficulties, because the behavior of rice flour has nothing to do with wheat flour - that may have also been another factor for the type of flour to have been changed. It took us many months to achieve the elaboration that we currently have”, says Eduardo Bizkarra.
The result is quite similar in flavor, although a little sweeter and creamier, they anticipate us. We have approached the Bizkarra store in Casco Viejo to try it and the truth is that we can confirm those notes from the official tasting.
It would not be easy to distinguish one from the other with the naked eye or at the first bite, but certain different nuances are appreciated. Was this the original recipe for rice cakes when they had rice in them? The clues seem to indicate that it is not, but this version adds one more anecdote to the history of this legendary Bilbao cake.
