Why are wafers and donuts eaten during the San Isidro Fiestas?

May is the month of the people of Madrid, especially for its patron saint festivities in honor of to San Isidro Labrador, on Monday, May 15. Between meals, festivals and pilgrimages, sweets are never lacking on the citizens’ tables and they are the Donuts Together with the typical wafers the favorite desserts of those who want to fully enjoy the festivity. Other desserts such as azucarillos, manolitos, chatitas or bartolillos are also typical desserts of the capital, although donuts and waffles take the cake of Madrid confectionery and have become the most popular desserts at this time.

Whatever your plan for this weekend, with a rich lemonade and some sweets from San Isidro all tastes like spring. It is not necessary to put on the manila shawl or the typical chulapo vests to enjoy the spirit of the Madrid party. Nor is it necessary to know how to dance the chotis, or to be a gato gato (that is, to have grandparents and parents from Madrid). Just go to the Pradera de San Isidro with your friends or family and have a typical San Isidro lemonade there, made with a base of wine, lemon, sugar and chopped fruit; along with some good donuts, either tonta listas or those from Santa Clara, or some delicious wafers. Here we tell you everything you need to know about these typical desserts and their origin.

Saint’s donuts

Everyone knows them: the famous Saint’s donuts, gastronomic protagonists of this festivity. There are many types, but the traditional ones are the ‘silly‘, which do not have icing; the ‘ready‘, dipped in sugar and lemon; the ‘French‘, with icing sugar and split almonds; and finally, those from Santa Clara to which an egg white syrup has been added on top, according to Europa Press. If you are one of the people who does not know which one is which, tell you that the white ones are the ones from Santa Clara and the yellow ones are the ‘lists’. There is no confusion with the ‘fools’ and the ‘French’ ones because the former are uncoated and the latter are filled with almonds and icing sugar. There is a last option, Madrid donutssofter than the rest and covered in sugar for those with a sweet tooth.

According to statements by confectioner Jonathan Yagüe to Europa Press, in 2022 a novelty for San Isidro was presented, the holy year donuts, with chocolate and almond coverage. According to the confectioner, the most popular are usually the ‘lists’, then the Santa Clara ones, the ‘French’ ones and finally the ‘dumb ones’. However, he believes that the new chocolate will gain positions and will be very close to the ‘lists’.

What is the origin of the San Isidro donuts?

Its origin dates back to the Middle Ages but its fame in the capital is due to a certain ‘aunt Javiera’ that made these sweets fashionable in the Pradera de San Isidro. She is not correct with her origin, although it is thought that this woman came from Fuenlabrada or Villarejo de Salvanés, places of rosquillera tradition, and that in the 19th century she began to sell her sweets due to the celebration of the pilgrimage in Madrid. It seems that the people of Madrid must have loved her because, since then, they began to be sold in all the workshops of the city on these dates.

The typical wafers of Madrid

They come in all sizes and shapes. some have cone figure such as ice cream cones, others may have cane shapeand even many others can count on a sandwich shape. The latter do not have a cylindrical shape like the previous ones, but these delicious sheets of flour, water, sugar or honey are folded on themselves in the shape of a sandwich. The wafers, on the other hand, are a typical dessert of the Madrid city and they even have their own profession: the waffle makers. Today there is only one workshop left in Madrid, that of Julián Cañas, who has been in the capital for four generations now, according to ‘El País.

In San Isidro, the consumption of this type of dessert is very typical and this is due above all to its popularity in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th, thanks to the waffle makers who sold this product in the streets of Madrid. One of the main figures of the Madrid wafer maker was the one who wore a waffle iron, the machine used to make waffles with a roulette wheel where buyers could try their luck. Dressed in traditional chulapo costumes, they carried a basket with a roulette wheel where the wafers were deposited and on top was a roulette wheel with which they you could play the bald. If you won, you would get a waffle, but if you lost or fell in El Calvo, you would lose your money.

Under the chants of “Cinnamon waffles for the boy and the girl! Coconut waffles that are cheap! Cinnamon and honey waffles, which are good for the skin! Vanilla waffles, how wonderful!”, the waffle makers took their product to the street with thousands of shapes and flavors. This mixture of flour, sugar, a little oil, water, cinnamon or vanilla essence, and grated coconut can be sweetened, although one of the most popular is The chocolate.