17 Authentic Spanish Desserts You Need To Try At Least Once

Imagine crispy bitesize cubes of deep-fried custard dusted with a thick layer of cinnamon and sugar — that's precisely what Spanish leche frita is. Tracing its roots is difficult — some claim that leche frita was a means for Catholic nuns to support their convents; others say that the fried bites can be traced to Spain's Moorish era and were influenced by the conquering Arabs. Whatever their origin, leche frita is so beloved across Spain that various regions, from Valladolid to the Basque Country, claim it as their own.

While its origins are complicated, its ingredients are anything but. All you need to create this tasty treat at home is an egg, flour, cornstarch, milk, sugar, and a cinnamon stick. It comes together by allowing the milk, cornstarch, and sugar to thicken while additional milk and a cinnamon stick infuse on the stove before all of the ingredients are combined and chilled. Once the mixture has chilled, it's time for a quick toss in an egg wash and flour before frying to a crisp and coating with cinnamon and sugar. Leche frita is best enjoyed with a stout cup of black coffee, which brings out its creamy texture and sweet, milky flavors.

These crumbly shortbread cookies known as polvorones take their name from polvo, or dust in Spanish, thanks to their thick blanket of powdered sugar. While today they're a quintessential holiday treat, their origins are a bit darker. Polvorones were used as a tool during the Spanish Inquisition to tell who was Jewish or Muslim, as the original recipe contains pork.

Traditionally, polvorones came together with a base of lard and just a handful of other ingredients, such as lightly toasted flour, ground almonds, and a whole bunch of powdered sugar. Lard may seem like an unusual ingredient for a sweet, but it adds a completely different layer of richness, and when you consider how central pork is to Spanish cuisine overall, it makes a great deal of sense. Polvorones can also be found across the Philippines where, in the centuries since their Spanish colonization, the country has made the dessert into something uniquely its own.

Originating from Andalusia, these crispy, twisted, deep-fried pastries are a must-try around Christmas and during Holy Week, Spain's (and most of the Catholic world) Easter season. Made from a simple dough of flour, finely ground spices such as anise, cinnamon, and nutmeg, along with white wine, and olive oil, pestiños are fried to a crisp and smothered in honey or coated with cinnamon and sugar.

The magic is in the use of Spanish olive oil, which is naturally nuttier and fruitier than its Italian counterpart, and takes on a golden hue. The soft, nutty notes of the olive oil infused with the sweetness of the dough and honey, resulting in an irresistible crunch. Pestiños are best enjoyed with a glass of sweet wine, such as the D.O. Malaga, which can be used in the dough as well, or a cup of hot chocolate.

You've heard of Spanish horchata, but have you heard of leche merengada? Slightly similar to horchata in terms of taste, leche merengada is a traditional Spanish dessert drink that is sweet, creamy, refreshing, and akin to light ice cream.

Leche merengada's base consists of whole milk and frothy egg whites that, once frozen, create Spain's version of something between a milkshake and a smoothie. It all starts once the milk has been heated on the stove and is slowly infused with cinnamon, lemon zest, and sugar. Once it's had time to cool, the beaten egg whites are mixed in before the leche merengada finishes off in the freezer for a few hours. It's the perfect refreshment on a hot summer day and can't be beaten when paired with a few leche fritas.

From Equador's guaguas de pan (bread babies) and Italy's fave de morti (beans of the dead), the Catholic world contains all sorts of interesting recipes that honor the dead for All Saints Day. Some are directly inspired by the Catholic church, while others also draw on indigenous traditions of the region. In Spain, one such dish used to commemorate the special day is huesos de santo or, in English, saint's bones.

Delicate sheets of sweet, nutty marzipan are tightly rolled before their centers are hollowed out and stuffed with a sugary egg yolk paste that serves as the 'bone marrow' of the dish. The end result is bitesize 'bones' that commemorate the many sacred relics of saints found in Cathedrals across the world.

A peek through the history of Catholic cuisine in Spain will reveal many delectable treats made by nuns, either to support their convents or their local communities. One shining example of such a treat is yemas de San Leandro. Made by the nuns of Convento San Leandro, a 13th-century convent in Sevilla, these tasty cookies offer the perfect dose of sweetness and culture.

Yemas de San Leandro is made with just three simple ingredients: egg yolks, lemon juice, and sugar. Not unlike the famous cloistered nun cookies of Madrid's Monasterio del Corpus Christi, yemas de San Leandro are acquired by placing money in a rotating tray that will then be replaced with the thoughtfully prepared cookies that have been wowing many folks with sweet tooth's for centuries.

Few things are as satisfying as Spain's rich vanilla custard dish, natillas de leche. With so many custard desserts around the world, natillas de leche is often overlooked, but its silky smooth texture and lavish trinity of vanilla, lemon, and cinnamon make it easy to see why it's one of Spain's best-kept secrets.

Not to be confused with flan, natillas de leche is much thicker and takes on less of a gelatinous texture. The custard forms by vigorously whisking hot milk that has been infused with cinnamon sticks, lemon zest, vanilla, and sugar, into an egg and cornstarch slurry until a thick consistency forms. The preparation takes great patience, though — you don't want scrambled eggs in your natillas de leche.

Pioanono are tiny, chunky, irresistible pastries that come from the little town of Santa Fe, not far from Granada, where pionono is essentially the unofficial dessert of the city, and we're here for it. The heart of pionono is a chubby little sponge cake stuffed with cinnamon-spiked cream and custard; a torched, caramelized cap is on top.

This cute little dessert was created in the 19th century when Pope Pius IX was honored by local confectioner, Ceferino Isla Gonzales, on the 50th anniversary of his passing. Thus, the pionono was born, its stout shape resembling the beloved pope's. Due to its rich, almost rum-like flavor, pionono is another Spanish sweet treat best enjoyed with a few sips of PX sherry or stout black coffee.

Any visit to Spain, or a Spanish restaurant for that matter, includes a long list of authentic foods to try — and among them is the tarta de Santiago, a traditional sweet hailing from the country's Galicia region. A centerpiece in any Spanish celebration of the Feast of Saint James, this dense citrus and almond cake is always clad with the cross of the late saint who is closely associated with Santiago de Compostela, a famous Christian pilgrimage site in Santiago where Saint James' tomb is also located. Due to its popularity and preservation through the centuries, this traditional Galician cake also holds its own Protected Geographical Indication, putting it in the same ranks as German bratwurst, Cyprian halloumi, and Turkish baklava.

Not only is this beloved Spanish dessert a symbol of culture and tradition, but it's also naturally gluten-free. Its star ingredient is ground almonds that give the cake a nutty flavor perfectly complimented by cinnamon, lemon, and a thick blanket of powdered sugar on top that make for a perfect aromatic indulgence. Because of the scarcity of almonds in Galicia in the 16th century, tarta de Santiago also worked as a sort of status symbol for the Galician elite, as only the region's wealthiest would have been able to afford such a large amount of almonds for a cake.