Indulge in Argentina’s Sweet Delights: Facturas

The word facturas can be confusing to the newbie traveler to Argentina. Does it mean to pay a pill, una factura? Luckily, it’s something much more delicious. 

Argentineans aren’t big breakfast eaters. No wonder, since they have dinner late at night and as a result are often not hungry when getting up. For many, a cup of coffee or a yerba mate will do, maybe accompanied by a medialuna (the tiniest croissant).

But weekends are for sleeping in, forgoing an early breakfast, and opting instead for a brunch-kind of meal and here’s where the facturas come in: sweet, fluffy pastries that come in different shapes and sizes, many of them filled with cream or dulce de leche. Other fillings may be marmalade or custard, and some are covered with sugar. We’re sold. 

You can buy the best facturas at panaderias, bakeries. While you can buy them per piece or per weight, the price is generally per dozen. You may as well buy twelve and snack on them throughout the day, a perfect way to try a whole variety.

While the variety of facturas is wide, they are made with a surprisingly low number of key ingredients: flour, yeast, sugar, eggs, butter, and water. The difference in quality may be the result of how the dough is prepared, the cooking time, and whether you prefer them baked in the oven or deep-fried. [pagebreak]

To give you an idea, here are a number of facturas you could pick from:

– Medialunas are miniature croissants and the most common factura. The half-moon shaped treats are often served in coffee cafes with a cup of coffee.

– Churros are deep fried snacks originating from Spain, which can be plain or filled with dulce de leche.

– Tortita negra is a small, round pastry covered with black sugar.

– Milhojas (like the French pastry mille-feuille) are layers of fluffy pastry with dulce de leche.

– Bola de fraile or Berlinesa, is of German origin and is fried, covered with powdered sugar, and can come with different fillings such as marmalade, custard, or chocolate.

– Cañoncitos look like the barrel of a canon, as the name suggests, and may be filled with dulce de leche.

– Palmera, nicknamed elephant ear, is delicious in its simplicity compared to the above-mentioned facturas. It’s a type of puff pastry made without yeast, comes without a filling, and is coated with sugar before baking. 

Which one will you choose?