Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Mallorca
A soft, buttery coiled sweet bread, pressed warm and snowed with powdered sugar, the pride of Puerto Rican panaderías at breakfast.
Puerto Rican · advanced · serves 6
prep 120 min · cook 15 min
~584 cal · 13g protein · 87g carbs · 21g fat · 2g fiber · 30g sugars · 12g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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The mallorca is a cherished Puerto Rican sweet bread, a soft, buttery, spiral-shaped roll whose name and shape trace back to the ensaimada of the Spanish island of Mallorca. It is the pride of the island's panaderias (bakeries).
The enriched dough, rich with egg yolks and butter, is rolled into a rope, coiled into its signature spiral, proofed, and baked until golden and feathery. The finishing move at breakfast is to split it, press it warm on a buttered griddle, and snow it with powdered sugar.
Soft, rich, and just sweet enough, it is eaten plain or made into a decadent breakfast sandwich with ham and cheese. The mallorca is a favourite morning treat, the taste of a Puerto Rican bakery at its buttery best.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
3.5 cups all-purpose flour
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup powdered sugar, to finish
Instructions
1
Make a soft enriched dough with the flour, warm milk, yeast, sugar, egg yolks, and salt, then knead until smooth.
2
Work in the softened butter, then let the dough rise until doubled, about an hour.
✎ Chef’s note
Add the butter only after the dough comes together, and knead until it is fully worked in. This gives mallorca its rich, feathery crumb.
3
Roll the dough into ropes and coil each into a spiral.
4
Let the shaped coils rise at cool room temperature for a long second proof, at least 6 hours and up to 16, until they are visibly puffed and the dough has closed up the gaps in the spiral.
✎ Chef’s note
This is the step people skip and the one that makes a mallorca. An overnight proof is normal; a one-hour proof gives you a sweet roll, not a mallorca.
5
Bake at 375F (190C) for about 20 minutes, until the buns are golden yellow rather than golden brown.
✎ Chef’s note
Pull them while they are still pale. A mallorca baked to a proper bread colour has gone too far, and it has to be soft enough to press flat on the griddle afterwards. The dough came from Mallorca, where it is the ensaimada, named for the saim, the lard it was traditionally made with; it reached Puerto Rico in the early twentieth century and took the name of the island it came from.
6
Split each roll, butter the cut faces, press them down on a hot griddle until golden, and only then dust heavily with powdered sugar.
✎ Chef’s note
Sugar goes on last and on a cooled roll, or it melts and disappears. Split and griddled like this a mallorca is also the base of the sandwich of the same name, with ham and cheese inside and the sugar still on top.
Puerto Rican panadería tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
San Juan. What separates mofongo from West African fufu, and from the Dominican mangu next door, is that the plantains are fried before they are pounded rather than boiled. The tool matters too: a wooden pilon, in which the garlic, the crackling and the plantain are worked together and then packed into a dome.
🗺️
Puerto Rico. Puerto Rican cooking is built on sofrito and the starchy magic of mofongo (mashed fried plantain), plus slow-roast pork and rice with pigeon peas. Spanish, African, and Taíno roots define its bold, comforting plate.
🌍
North America. The most consequential technique on this continent is nixtamalisation, cooking maize with lime or wood ash. It loosens the skins, makes the dough that becomes tortillas and tamales, and frees up niacin the body cannot otherwise absorb, which is why maize spread around the world without the technique and took pellagra with it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Puerto Rico
MofongoFried green plantains mashed with garlic and crackling pork, mounded and filled with garlicky shrimp or stew.
Arroz con GandulesRice cooked with pigeon peas, sofrito, and pork in one pot, forming a prized crust, Puerto Rico's national dish.
TemblequeA wobbling coconut pudding set with cornstarch and dusted with cinnamon, a light Puerto Rican holiday classic.
Browse all Puerto Rico recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Griddle or flat pan, Oven.
Storing it: Keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and reheats covered in the oven. Most bakes can be assembled a day ahead and baked when needed.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Mallorca?
A soft, buttery coiled sweet bread, pressed warm and snowed with powdered sugar, the pride of Puerto Rican panaderías at breakfast.
Where does Mallorca come from?
Mallorca is a Puerto Rican dish from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Can Mallorca be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Mallorca recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Mallorca safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Mallorca take to make?
About 135 minutes total (120 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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