Celestial Pleasures

We had been told that in a cloistered convent in a quiet village, a number of industrious nuns prepare the finest custards, tastiest buns, and most delicious almond pastries you have ever tried.

We approached the convent. We rang the bell and a voice replied from behind the turntable (the ancestral device allowing the nuns to remain in contact with the outside world while out of sight). We placed our order, and our reward appeared at the turntable soon after. Reverently, we collected it, appreciative of the unique.

Spanish convents have played an essential part in the preservation of the confectionery typical of each Spanish region. Nuns can dedicate the time, care, and attention required for the production of handmade pastries and candy.

Historically, monks have tended more toward the manufacture of liquor and jellies, whereas confectionery has very much been the domain of the nuns.

Outside the convent walls, the vast majority of the population was illiterate for many centuries. However, nuns were able to collect recipes for, and traditions surrounding, confectionery, enhanced by their contact with locals, and the various cultures that have settled in the Iberian Peninsula. There were also many exchanges between convents, of both resources and members.

In 2003, according to the most recent episcopal statistics, there were 13,000 cloistered nuns associated with 44 monastic orders in Spain, residing in 907 convents. A contemplative nun, as opposed to a lay sister, is dedicated to prayer, meditation, and labor, under the guidance of a superior, and within a monastic order. They are further classified into two categories: papal cloisters and constitutional cloisters.

Nuns in papal cloisters, dependent on the Vatican, include the Carmelites, Poor Clares, and Minims, among others. The Poor Clares still observe strict enclosure, with railings and a turntable. They only go out when absolutely necessary. The other religious orders—among them Benedictine, Cistercian, Dominican, and Augustinian—are governed by a cloister with its own statutes, and do not use railings or turntables.

There is little information available regarding the history and origin of convent confectionery, beyond the recipes themselves. There are plenty of published recipe books, but these are almost always specific to certain convents. Every abbey plays its part in history, but there has never been a proper consensus on the nuns' knowledge of gastronomy or confectionery. Their work has always been considered less important than that of the monks.

The humility with which the nuns carry out their work in general is compounded not only by their subordination to the male clergymen, but also—according to the gastronomical journalist, Carmen Alcaraz del Blanco—the fact that the women's work is deemed less meaningful.

The production of confectionery as a form of essential economic income for the religious community is largely due to the successive ecclesiastical confiscations of the 19th century. Throughout the centuries, many religious institutions used their social influence to accumulate goods and land. They received donations from the devout, bequests in wills, and legacies from those who died without a will.

One of the measures implemented by the well-known Confiscation of Mendizábal (1836-1837)—the most significant together with that of Madoz (1854-1856)—was the dissolution of any religious order that was not dedicated to charity, as well as the expropriation of all its possessions. Any convents still in existence following this measure were left in notably more precarious circumstances than those they had previously enjoyed.

Nuns often received gifts from the convent's neighbors, such as ingredients, which they then shared out among the poor, or used, so they wouldn't go to waste. In keeping with this custom, there is a well-known tradition in which brides would offer a dozen eggs to their closest Poor Clare convent, to prevent it from raining on their wedding day. This tradition is still maintained in several Clare communities in Spain. 

The nuns then transformed these gifts into a product with added value, to help with their upkeep. This was probably the main reason from the mid-19th century onward. Before then, however, many of the pastries and jellies were made to use up the excess fruit and vegetables they produced themselves, or that were donated from benefactors and the families of the sisters.

The traditional pastries made in the convents are typical of traditional Spanish confectionery, as they use many of the same ingredients and techniques. These include: pork fat, e.g. for buns or wafers for sweet pastries; spices and flavorings such as cinnamon and aniseed; dried fruits such as almonds, influenced by Arab rule; and lots of deep fat frying, influenced by the Jewish tradition.

Some of the sweet treats stem from centuries-old traditions, such as the "yemas de San Leandro," egg yolk sweets from the convent of San Leandro in Seville (solitary Augustinians). The sisters explain that these were being made back in the 15th century—evidenced by the bills for eggs and sugar—to gift to benefactors and relatives. From the mid-19th century, the yemas were made to add to the nuns' own provisions. They were made to a secret recipe, which is still closely guarded among the congregation today.

When it comes to confectionery stemming from the inventiveness of the religious women, a more recent example born from necessity and virtue is the "tocino del cielo": a delicious sweet made from curdled yolks with syrup. We know it has been around since 1924. It originated in the convent of Espíritu Santo in Jerez (Cádiz) to use up the large amounts of yolks left over from the wineries of Jerez and neighboring regions, which were given to the nuns. It represents a perfect symbiosis between those who only used the egg whites, in the clarification of their wine, and those who looked for ways to use up the surplus yolks.

Some confectionery is widely associated with convent productions, even though it did not originate there. The confusion often stems from the Spanish tradition of giving pastries and desserts religious names. "Yemas de Santa Clara" and "huesos de San Expedito" (bone-shaped candy) are good examples; their names lead us to believe that they hail from a convent, but they do not.

In the 21st century, religious vocation is rare, and many convents have been forced to close. However, several have already modernized and have even begun selling their confectionery online, with web pages to rival even other kinds of stores. As an example, a button like that of the store of the Poor Clares of Santa Ana in Badajoz.

The decline in religious vocation in Spain led to convents accepting novices from other countries, who enriched the culture of convent confectionery with foreign recipes. This activity stopped in 2016, when Pope Francis prohibited the arrival of foreign novices to guarantee the survival of the congregations. Today, 21% of cloistered nuns in Spain are foreigners.

The congregations have found confectionery sales to be an excellent business; their delicious products have added value for the public, having been made by the nuns. For some years now, well-known fairs have been run to exhibit and sell convent confectionery, such as the Expoclausura in Madrid, or the Cloistered Convent Confectionery Exhibition (Exposición de Dulces de Conventos de Clausura) in Seville.

Using new technologies, the convents have been able to adapt to a world which exists primarily outside of their walls. Convent confectionery is therefore in a strong position today, so those of us with an unrepentant sweet tooth can be sure to continue tasting and enjoying this tradition for many years to come.