A round of puff pastry filled with cabello de ángel, the candied strands of a Spanish pumpkin, baked until the layers separate and dusted heavily with sugar and cinnamon. Eaten at room temperature with coffee.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
Also called the pastel de cidra, the pastel cordobés is the city's defining pastry and turns on one ingredient: cabello de ángel, angel hair, made by boiling the flesh of the cidra pumpkin with sugar until it separates into translucent threads. The filling is medieval Andalusi confectionery, sugar-preserving fruit being an Arab technique, and it survives across Spain but is at its most concentrated here. Obrador San Rafael, working in Córdoba since 1918, makes the version most cordobeses treat as the benchmark.
Common allergens: Gluten, Milk
Tip from the editors. Cabello de ángel is sold in jars in any Spanish supermarket. Quince paste is not a substitute; it is far too dense.
Obrador San Rafael has run in Córdoba since 1918, and El Manolete came out of its founder's collaboration with the bullfighter of the same name.
Order: A Manolete, then a full pastel cordobés in hojaldre and cabello de ángel.
Tip: There are four shops in the city; Alfayatas is the one closest to the old quarter.
Worth the queue: El Manolete
Pastelería Savoy has worked in Córdoba since 1969, founded by a third-generation pastry chef and still turning out the classic pastel cordobés.
Order: The pastel cordobés, hojaldre and cabello de ángel, nothing else needed.
Tip: Production moved to a Lope de Rueda obrador in 1982; Maestro Priego López is the shop you want.
Worth the queue: Pastel cordobés
Pastelerías Roldán keeps fourteen cafeterias across Córdoba, with the Gran Capitán counter selling pastelón cordobés and manoletes from 07:30.
Order: The pastelón cordobés, which has its own page on the operator's site.
Tip: The Amargacena obrador supplies every branch but is an industrial unit, not a shop you can visit.
Worth the queue: Pastelón cordobés
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