Bulacan Delicacies You'd drool for blog#3

Sweets and delicacies have long been famed products of Bulacan, my hometown. These generated income opportunities to many Bulakeños knowing that this type of industry can be easily manufactured even at home. 

Among the well-known manufactured sweet goods in the province are pastillas de leche, pastillas de yema, pastillas de ube, macapuno/ube balls, minasa, inipit, ensaymada, cassava/rice cakes, puto, kalamay, suman, and among others. 

They are prominent because of the extraordinary ingredients used and procedures done to achieve a flavor that one will continually look for once tasted. This unique quality of Bulacan sweets has made them favorite "pasalubong" to love ones.

And so, without further ado, Here are some of my favorite sweets and delicacies which are famous products from Bulacan.

• Pastillas

Pastillas is a milk-based confectionery with origins in the town of San Miguel in Bulacan, Philippines. From San Miguel, pastillas-making spread to other Philippine regions such as the provinces of Cagayan and Masbate.

Initially, pastillas de leche were primarily home-made by carabao-rearing farmers. A small-scale industry on the food product soon grew, with the pastillas made from either carabao or cow milk or both. Refined sugar and calamondin juice are also added during the pastillas-making process.^[1]

In San Miguel, Bulacan, a Pastillas Festival has been celebrated every May since 2006. The paper-cut form of the pabalat is also linked to the festival, involving making elaborate paper-cut designs using these wrappers.

• Yema

Yema is a sweet custard confectionary from the Philippines. It is made with egg yolks, milk, and sugar. The name yema is from Spanish for "egg yolk". Like other egg yolk-based Filipino desserts, it is believed that yema originated from early Spanish construction materials. During the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, egg whites mixed with quicklime and eggshells were used as a type of mortar to hold stone walls together. Filipinos reused the discarded egg yolks into various dishes. Among them is yema, which is possibly based on the Spanish pastry Yemas de Santa Teresa.

Yemas were originally made with only egg yolks and sugar, heated and stirred until the consistency is thick. They are then shaped into small balls or pyramids and covered in white sugar. Milk (or condensed milk) later became part of the recipe (probably during the American period). Modern variations also usually include chopped nuts.

• Inipit

Inipit translated to English means “pressed”, is a flat sandwich pastry that originated from Malolos, Bulacan. Inipit is two slices of sponge cake with custard filling in which Eurobake is known for. It started as Panaderia La Concepcion in 1945 in San Vicente, Malolos. The original inipit was introduced to the public by the late Salome P. de Ramos.

(Sources of images in courtesy of Google)