Every February 3, San Blas Day, they would line us up.
We walked down the school hallway with our arms at a 90 angle to our perpendicular, which was barely four feet tall.
Over the hands, a white cloth, and wrapped in the cloth, a cake of compact dough that intoxicated us with anise.
That same morning, before leaving the house, we deeply inhaled its aroma with pleasure.
However, after a few hours in a class of thirty students with one 'sanblás' per person, what we wanted was to return to the smell of pencil leads, eraser, and tangerines at recess time.
The priest was waiting for us in the chapel.
After the sermon, what interested us: that he bless us those San Blas cakes that are waiting at home longer than us, and also the pearl cord that would protect us, by miracle, from a sore throat for the next few weeks if we wear it tied around the neck for eight days and we burned it afterwards.
They say that the saint, who was a doctor and bishop, saved the life of a child who had a fish bone stuck in his throat, and hence the mystique.
The anise thing is less clear.
The time had come.
We stood on tiptoe and took position, each one raising our Saint Blaise cake in the air, in a fight for the drops of holy water that the priest carelessly threw on us with his golden sprinkler.
If we managed to get one to land on our cake we were satisfied: it would be tastier and they would be happier at home.
Back at the pen, we secretly pinched the sinuous edges barely bathed in the white covering—“come on, just a couple, we deserve it”—, our arms aching and hunger pressing.
When they went out to the patio, some were less careful with the cake;
Others, fed up, went for tangerines more.
This is what the whole San Blas cake looks likeLakshmi Aguirre Iglesias
From behind closed doors
Whoever doesn't know Eibar is because they don't want to.
In this Gipuzkoa town, the Republic was proclaimed one day before the rest of Spain - here whoever doesn't run, flies - if you have a GAC bicycle (already a relic), a BH or an Orbea, you pedal through Eibar history, just like if you take up sewing with an Alfa sewing machine.
If you like soccer you will know the Ipurua field, and there is no hunting lover who has not had a shotgun or a rifle made here (it is called the gunsmith city for a reason).
It also literally appears in books, photo included, as one of the worst built cities in the country, but even that is what we are proud of.
In terms of gastronomy, Eibar also has the
pintxo-pote
, a modern version of the
traditional
txikiteo that, probably and given the intensity of its practice, was also born among these mountains.
Every day you see octogenarian gentlemen with
txapela
and cane who continue without forgiving one and they testify to it.
The San Blas cake or
San Blas opila
is one of those sweets of blurred origin because it was born in domestic kitchens, it improved collectively and totally horizontally.
No individual creative spasms that overnight give rise to names like
cronut
,
cragel
or
churronuts
whose birth can be dated as exactly as their death.
The San Blas cakes - and not the roscos, more common in other towns - are living history of Eibar and neighboring towns such as Ermua, Elgoibar or Soraluze and tell the stories of each pair of hands that knead them.
The whole church smells of aniseSilbia Hernandez.
Eta kitto!
It could be said that it is a bread dough that the
mamas
(grandmothers) and, before them, their
mamas
, enriched with eggs, sugar and fat when the saint's day arrived.
The traditional thing is to make it with lard, which was what they had most on hand and what they could afford, although today there are also versions with butter.
The passing of the years has taken its toll, but the tradition of making it at home when February approaches is maintained.
In fact, the sale of flour multiplies in the Gipuzkoa town at this time and there are young people who have picked up the baton of tradition so that it is not lost.
Fortunately, there are still portals in Eibar that give off that smell of anise and bread in the oven when February 3rd approaches.
In February, but also all year round
It was born from the inside out, but the ritual is to give them away and also exchange them, which gives rise to testing those recipes that vary slightly and that, sometimes, carry risks.
The San Blas cake is not precisely characterized by being spongy and light, but quite the opposite, so poor kneading or an error in proportions can take more than one person to the dentist.
“The texture should be very similar to that of a shortbread cookie,” says Miriam Lizarralde of the now historic Isasi bakery, the epicenter of San Blasil in Eibar.
That is to say: medium hard, floury and slightly buttery.
Her secret, she confesses, is not to opt for one and mix butter with butter.
Ancient children and blessed 'sanblases'Eibar Municipal Archive
The Lizarralde family began making San Blas cakes in the mid-20th century.
“My grandparents would open the bakery around 1915 and they started with the 'sanblases' after several years giving their ovens to women who prepared the cakes at home but had nowhere to bake them,” he says.
She, her two sisters and her cousin are the third generation in charge of this workshop that sells San Blas throughout the year: “Daily, about 40, but when February approaches we are at capacity and we go to 400″.
They must stop making other sweets to meet the demand, which does not always stay in Eibar, but already travels to all of Spain.
"Before, people took Bergara fillings as a gift when they went to see relatives outside, to Donosti, Madrid or even the Canary Islands, but now they take a pair of 'sanblases'."
It is not the only bakery that sells them in February: “You can find them in any pastry shop in Donosti, Bilbao or Vitoria.
It appears everywhere!
I understand it.
You have to hold on to the train.
It's like panettone at Christmas, which is from Italy and now everyone sells it, but that's fashion."
The recipe
"Not that.
No, no, no, no”, is Lizarralde's response when we ask him for the recipe.
"It's not that it's a secret, it's that in Eibar people already do sanblases very well, don't believe it."
With lard or with butter, the bases remain the same in each family.
This is what has been made in my house all my life in afternoons of gatherings with local neighbors who shared recipes, of course, but also time and soul (in addition to a sip of sweet wine to face the task of kneading).
Time:
80 minutes
Difficulty:
You have to knead with patience
Ingredients
For eight sanblases (to keep a two or three and give away the rest)
For the mass
1.5 kg of common flour
300g sugar
1.5 envelopes of yeast (Royal type)
8 eggs
300 g of butter
100g butter
Anise essence to taste (about 15 drops)
For coverage
2 egg whites
400 g icing sugar
Instructions
In the
Product of the Month section
we tell the story of foods that excite us for their quality, their flavor and the talent of the people who make them.
No producer has given us money, jewelry or gift vouchers from Mercadona for the production of these items.
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