Start: Vitoria-GasteizFinish: Irun

In Vitoria-Gasteiz visitors can find many famous sweets. The "neskitas" and "vasquitos" are the most characteristic candies in the city. All those ones who visit the capital city of Alava must take these sweets as souvenir. Confectioners and pastry cooks have turned their creations into classics in the city. For instance: San Prudencio's dessert, essential bite during the town's festivals, "chuchitos" from Vitoria, compulsory dessert on Sundays and public holidays, and French toasts covered in milk, typical sweets during the Carnival in Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Bizkaia also offers a large range of sweets. In Bilbao we can enjoy "canutillos a la crema" (a kind of puff pastry with cream) or rice cakes. In Barakaldo, the "baracaldesitas" are a good choice to make our palate sweeter, and finally Markina-Xemein will surprise us with its "kokotes".

Going into the territory of Bizkaia we will taste one of the most typical Basque desserts: "mamia" or sheep milk curd. Today house curd can be found in many towns of Duranguesado and Arratia regions. Russian cake is also another amazing sweet to eat in Bizkaia. It consists in baked meringue with butter cream. In many religious processions, moreover, there are many characteristic candies: marshmallow sweets in San Blas (Abadiño) or San Antonio's doughnuts (Urkiola).

In Gipuzkoa a varied baking distributes along the traditional calendar. Every year, on Christmas time, in many Basque houses we can find the "intxaur-saltsa" (nuts sauce). This is an old tradition, especially important in zones of Deba and Urola. Its production is very laborious, cooking milled nuts flour in milk, adding sugar until we get a cream.

Mendaro, on the other hand, is remarkable due to its chocolate. Nowadays, Saint Gerons chocolate, which dates from the half of the 19th century, is the only chocolate remaining in Euskadi made with traditional methods. Furthermore, in Bergara, we can find delicious fillings and "tostones".

As we approach the end of our sweet route, we cannot forget visiting Tolosa. In Tolosa visitors can taste "tejas", "cigarrillos" and "gorrotxas", as well as the "franchipan", an elegant almond cake. Finally in Bidasoa and Oarsoaldea zone, at San Marcos' day, is traditional to prepare some especial hot cakes, called "opilak" or "San Marcos' cake". According to tradition, godmothers give these cakes to their single godsons.

Stage : Vitoria-Gasteiz-Irun