Confitería Blanco, more than 120 years as masters of puff pastry in Cantabria
It was the year 1898 when Torrelavega witnessed the birth of a place that would mark its history as puff pastry cradle . Confitería Blanco opened its doors to become almost a legend. More of 120 years later , in the hands of the fourth generation, continues to delight everyone who tries its exquisite puff pastry. The reason? Keep everything as it was, 100% craftsman.
To find out more about his story, we chatted with Mary White , great-granddaughter of that pioneer who introduced the art of puff pastry in Torrelavega, today in charge of this century-old confectionery and also responsible for taking the step to introduce it into digital modernization. Now, from Torrelavega, they reach all of Spain.
White Confectionery in Torrelavega
**OVER 100 YEARS AS PASTRY MASTERS**
“In the past, families had to have a priest. They sent my great-grandfather to study to prepare for Vitoria. During the years that he was there, he learned with the Jesuit fathers to work the puff pastry. Back home, he was excited, but also faced with the great challenge of telling his family that he did not want to be a priest”, explains María. In 1898, White Angel, relieved of his duties as priest , was able to fulfill his dream, he set up his confectionery and introduced the art of puff pastry in Torrelavega, a story that is still being written today.
For the time he was quite an advanced. "Puff pastry is worked first with heat, but then it needs to cool down, it is laminated, heat is applied again and then cold...", says María and continues "it is really an art. In the past there were no cold rooms like now and it was my great-grandfather who, on a visit to the Universal Exhibition of Barcelona in 1929 , purchased a cold storage ", he points out. That was a revolution. Until now, the butter used for puff pastry had to be cooled in a well, which made the process much slower and more cumbersome.
Mary White
The achievements of Ángel Blanco did not stop there. "He continued training, studying and learning about pastry and the puff pastry technique," says María. It was then that he created the polka, a dance-inspired candy which was fashionable in the Czech Republic. “ Ties come out of my great-grandfather's polkas , that many people know and are sold throughout Cantabria, but the original sweet was this, made with puff pastry and royal icing. He also creates French toast , but not as we know them, but also elaborated with puff pastry bathed in syrup and sugar water".
The polkas of Torrelavega
of the great-grandfather, the confectionery passed into the hands of the grandfather , which expands the business with a place to give weddings, very focused on pastry. Next in line was Maria's father , who was in charge of the place, helped by his mother dispatching. "My father makes it grow, hires more employees, buys some newer machinery..." Until reaching Maria, current owner , which up to now she was dedicating herself to a small hotel who run in Suances.
“I practically grew up there . When I left school I went to the sweet shop, I did my homework in the upstairs office... It's like my house and the employees, my family. I have so internalized the aroma that I barely smell it anymore!”, she confesses. “My father warned me that it was a complicated, hard, very laborious job, that you had to work hard to get ahead. It was with the confinement when I thought that this could not be lost and I said, here we go”, says María full of pride.
The first Confitería Blanco refrigerator cabinet
** QUALITY RAW MATERIALS, ARTISANAL ELABORATION AND FLAVORS OF YESTER YEAR **
María took the reins of the confectionery and, respecting the tradition and her trade, they gave it a new life: “I know every corner of the confectionery. It is not particularly pretty, but it has a lot of character. We have some machines that my great-grandfather bought that are still working today.” She is a firm enthusiast that puff pastry is an art and those who work it are artists.
At the White Confectionery neither ingredients nor industrial techniques enter , only the best raw materials. “If you come to the confectionery you will see that we only use flour, sugar, eggs, almonds, cocoa, coconut... I don't need more. We do not use dyes , because the shine is given by the egg. Everything is done by hand and everything is made by us.”
puff pastry
We had talked about the polkas, a specialty and sign of the house, and the torrijas. But there is much more, authentic bites of pleasure that deserve to be known. Crunchy palmettos , covered with a smooth and shiny layer of milk chocolate; nutty , which they make with puff pastry and Marcona almonds; tea cakes or some puff pastry cakes that make you touch the sky, prepared with sheets of puff pastry, separated by whipped butter cream and crowned with chopped almonds. They can be ordered by units of cupcakes or in cake format, both rectangular and round with four floors , this latest innovation from Maria herself.
Chocolatiers have to try their truffles and chocolates , made one by one with 100% natural cocoa and another of the confectionery specialties: Nuris, layered sponge cakes with whipped buttercream , covered with chocolate and hazelnuts. In an eminently sweet world, there is also room for salty. Their empanadas they are outstanding and they sell them as white tuna from the North, for which they use Consorcio or Iberian products, with sausage and bacon.
Chocolate is also present in the kingdom of puff pastry
In this new stage, the confectionery reinvents itself, without losing its essence and lands in the digital world . “We have an excellent product and as I say, we needed the jacket or the party dress to cover this amazing body”, she laughs. For it created a new packaging , more current and ideal to be able to send it to all corners of the country. “Regardless of the continent, what is important is what is inside, the product is always there.”
With this they launched a online store that ships to the entire Peninsula with free shipping from 69 euros of purchase. “It has worked great. When I proposed it, nobody believed that it would come out and I feel very proud of having achieved it. At Christmas we even had to disconnect the online store due to the flood of orders we had in the physical store.” Their foray into the digital world goes further, because practically every week, they upload a video to their social networks, where it is María herself who explains why her puff pastry is so special, talks about her products and humanizes the brand even more .
We have already tried them and they are simply spectacular. Will you also fall into temptation?
Confitería Blanco, more than 120 years as masters of puff pastry in Cantabria