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Known simply as tarta de queso or gazta tarta in its native Basque, this simple yet incredibly creamy cheesecake variation is a decades-old local specialty of the La Viña Bar in San Sebastián. The recipe is a simple combination of classic cheesecake ingredients such as sugar, heavy cream, eggs, and cream cheese, but unlike its more popular counterparts, this Basque version does not have any crust.
Instead, it is baked on a high temperature which leaves the outside firm, darker, and somewhat burnt, while the center remains gooey. Basque cheesecake is immensely popular, and while La Viña remains its place of origin, different variations are nowadays found in several patisseries around the world.
MOST ICONIC Basque Cheesecake
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Pain au chocolat is a French viennoiserie roll made with a combination of rectangular, yeast-leavened dough and a few chocolate sticks or chocolate ganache. The filled dough is rolled, baked, then served, ideally while still hot or warm. This flaky pastry can be bought at numerous French bakeries and supermarkets.
Interestingly, another name for pain au chocolat is chocolatine, and it is mostly used in the southwest of the country. In Bordeaux, there is even a case where customers had to pay more if they ordered a pain au chocolat rather than a chocolatine.
Turrón de Jijona is a soft nougat made with almonds, honey, sugar, and egg whites. It was named after its birthplace, a small Valencian town of Jijona (Xixona). This nougat is made by cooking sugar, honey, almonds, and egg whites.
It has a light brown color, and it is speckled with tiny almond pieces. The ingredients are cooked, turned into a paste, and then cooked again in the so-called boixets. The mixture is then poured into molds until it sets. This nougat does not include any wafers.
It can be made with several types of honey, including rosemary and orange blossom honey, while the almonds must come from the Mediterranean region.
Elongated, crispy, crunchy and intensely fragrant, churros consist of deep-fried yeast dough encrusted with sugar. Although some may argue against consuming these sweet treats, warning others about the dangerous effects of sugar and fat on human bodies, the popularity of churros throughout the world doesn't seem to wane.
Originally invented by Spanish shepherds who could easily cook them in a pan over an open fire, today these unusually shaped, cinnamon sugar sprinkled twists are most commonly eaten in Spain and Latin America as a hot breakfast food, accompanied by a strong cup of coffee or a cup of thick hot chocolate.
MOST ICONIC Churros
View moreCrema Catalana is a popular Spanish dessert made by baking a custard consisting of milk, cornstarch, and eggs in an oven. After baking and cooling, the dessert is sprinkled with sugar and broiled or burnt with a torch to create a crispy, burnt caramel top layer.
Sometimes, crema Catalana may be flavored with cinnamon, lemon, or orange zest. The dessert is also known as Crema de Sant Josep, since it is traditionally prepared on March 19, celebrating the saint. It is also the oldest European custard dessert, dating back to the 14th century.
MOST ICONIC Crema Catalana
View moreIn its basic form, this traditional Catalan dessert is a simple combination of honey and mató (also known as brossat or brull)—a subtly sweet fresh cheese that is made from goat, sheep, or cow milk. The dish is assembled by placing a piece of mató and then generously drizzling it with honey.
A common homemade dessert as well as a regular restaurant dish, mel i mató is easily modified with the addition of nuts, jams, and dry or fresh fruit.
Natillas is a traditional dessert made by boiling a combination of milk, egg yolks, sugar, flour, salt, and vanilla. Although the vanilla-flavored variety is the most popular one, natillas can also be flavored with chocolate or turrón.
The dessert is often sprinkled with cinnamon on top before serving in order to improve its flavors even further. It is believed that natillas was invented by nuns who used to prepare it in convents across Europe.
MOST ICONIC Natillas
Tarta de Santiago is a sponge cake made with eggs, almonds, and sugar, flavored with either lemon zest, grape marc, sweet wine, or brandy. Optionally, the cake can have a base layer made from puff pastry or shortcrust pastry. The earliest reference to this cake dates back to 1577, but the first recipe appeared rather late, around 1838.
The imprint of the Cross of Saint James on top of the cake–made with powdered sugar–appeared first in 1924 in a cake shop in Santiago Compostela and has since become standard practice. Since 2010, the cake holds a PGI status within Europe, and in traditional Galician cake shops it is still prepared according to 19th-century recipes.
Reminiscent of a cheesecake, quesada pasiega is a traditional Cantabrian creamy cake made with a combination of butter, sugar, milk, flour, eggs, and either ricotta or cheese curds. It is typically flavored with cinnamon and lemon zest. The texture of quesada pasiega is similar to that of a dense pudding.
When baked, it can be served hot or cold. It is recommended to top it with fruit jams in order to make it even more delicious.
Leche frita is a delicious Spanish dessert consisting of a sweet, firm milk-pudding encased in a crunchy fried shell of eggs and flour. It is made with flour, cornstarch, sugar, milk, eggs, butter, and olive oil. The whole concoction is flavored with cinnamon.
Leche frita, meaning fried milk, can be served cold, at room temperature, or hot, ideally with a scoop of ice cream on the side. Although this old dessert has murky origins, it is believed that the first versions were made by nuns who used to sell these treats to help maintain their convents.
MOST ICONIC Leche frita
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TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. For the “Top 65 Spanish Desserts” list until February 13, 2025, 4,049 ratings were recorded, of which 3,363 were recognized by the system as legitimate. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.