In response to erica1’s question on her Barcelona, 6 nights thread:
“IS there a town/city with the reputation as having the best bread on the mainland??
Rather than causing a digression on her report, I’ll just attempt an answer to that question here from my Madrid perspective.
While undoubtedly Barcelona boasts outstanding bakeries like Baluard and Turris, in the last ten years or so, Madrid is now finally coming into its own on the bread making front.
There are also award-winning bakeries here such as Cientotreinta° in Chamberí, El Horno de San Onofre in Malasaña, Pan.Delirio (14 types of breads) in Salamanca & Chamartín, Obrador San Francisco in La Latina, Panem in the Retiro district and the Museo del Pan Gallego on the Plaza de Herradores in the center whose oven dates from 1887, the oldest in the city.
During three recent lunches, the breads presented at Gurisa (they make their own), Freixa Tradición and the unforgettable Desde 1911 by Pescaderías Coruñesas have been outstanding.
Desde 1911 presents its diners with an impressive bread cart with 5-6 different types of beautiful breads, all from Cientotreinta° in Chamberí. One can choose as many as one likes and repeat as often as one wants.
At Freixa Tradición, excellent bread is an important element of the experience here as the chef´s parents and grandparents owned a bakery in Cataluña, and he grew up surrounded by the enticing smell of bread. Here it’s served with Castillo de Canena olive oil, picual variety.
On our recent Saturday lunch, we couldn’t stop dipping our bread into the remaining juices of our Maresme tear pears and fried eggs with truffles. The chef´s rich sauces are a perfect companion to his breads. Ramón has an external bakery that continues to make his breads in the family tradition with a 75-year-old sourdough starter.
In Spain there are 6 types of bread with an official PGI designation:
Galician bread, pan gallego, the Galician bread from San Cristóbal de Cea, La Mancha’s pan de cruz from Ciudad Real, pan de Alfacar from the Granada province, the catalán pa payés (“peasant bread”) used to make pa amb tomàquet, the catalán tomato bread and finally…
the molletes (soft spongy rolls) from Antequera, the roll that accompanies the famous Sevilla pringá sandwich or montadito. You can read all about pringá on our friend Shawn Hennessey’s Bite Size Sevilla substack here.
We purchase our pan de campaña from the Pan.Delirio stand at El Corte Inglés Castellana. Their other bakery can be found at Juan Bravo 21 in the Salamanca district. This is the bakery that offers its famous Roscón de Reyes all year long, both entire roscones and individual portions. So if you miss it during the Christmas season, you can enjoy it at any time.
The next time you visit Madrid, be sure to visit the exceptional bakery of Alma Nomad off my favorite pretty square, Plaza de Olavide, the wonderful spot that was recommended here by tigerjohn. Their bakery items are exceptional as is their pizza from the adjacent Pizza Pronto.
