Casadielles

Casadielles are sweet nut-filled pastries made in Asturias in northern Spain. The ends of the long, slender parcels are sealed with a fork, and the pastries are fried in oil and coated in sugar. Biting through the thin pastry, you can taste the texture of walnut or hazelnut pieces and the aroma of anise.

Wrapping the Nuts and Sealing the Ends

In one example, white wine, fat, egg yolk, flour and other ingredients are mixed, and the dough is rested and rolled out thin. The nuts are chopped into fine pieces rather than ground into flour, and combined with anise liqueur. The filling is placed on the dough and wrapped, the ends are pressed with a fork, and the pastries are fried on both sides in oil. You can enjoy the crisp bite of the thin pastry and the texture of the filling, in which the nut pieces remain.

In another culinary source, chopped walnuts and hazelnuts are combined with sugar, anise and milk for the filling. The dough is cut into rectangles and rolled up, leaving a margin on the left and right.

The combination of fillings varies from household to household and from maker to maker. An Asturian tourism guide describes an example that combines crushed walnuts with sugar or honey and anise, with a little milk or butter added to taste. A regional document for pastry shops also lists, as less common examples, versions filled with custard or dulce de leche. Besides fried versions, there are also methods that finish the pastries by baking them in the oven.

Festive Days and Local Pastry Shops

In Asturias, this pastry is made at Christmas, Carnival and Easter. Carnival is also called Antroxu in the local language. According to Gijón’s tourism guide, while the pastry is associated with festive seasons in that city, it can be found year-round in pastry shops and in establishments that serve cider. It is both a sweet fried at home and a regional flavor chosen at shops.

As for the name, one theory traces it to a riddle phrase, “What is this?”, asking someone to guess what is inside the parcel. The story suits the way the pastry hides its nut filling inside its wrapper, but it does not establish the origin of the name.

Carbayones from Oviedo also use nuts, but an almond filling is packed into a pastry mold, baked, and topped with layers of egg and sugar coating. Casadielles are best known for being made by wrapping nuts inside pastry, pressing the ends shut and frying them.

Glossary