Biscuits play a key role in the table setting fostering conversation and pleasant atmosphere. Many of the products recognised in this 6th edition of Girona Excel·lent can be included in after-dinner settings: coffees, teas, ratafia and liqueurs, sweet wines, jams or dried fruit. Chocolates and other exquisite sweets could also be added — those that mark the country’s festive calendar: nougat, rabasses (Christmas cakes from the Empordà), tortells, coques de llardons, bunyols, mones, flaones, coques de Sant Joan, panellets, neules… We also find outstanding local specialties that have become universally known: peixos de nata and taps from Cadaqués, bisbalenc and rus biscuits, coca from Palau-saverdera, tortell entorxat, tortada from Banyoles, the xuixo from Girona, or fuet dolç (curious and surprising creation, both meaty and sweet).
Small sweets, which can be eaten in a single bite, are made all over the Girona region. In fact, the beauty of biscuits, usually made with dried fruit, lies in how well they travel and how long they last. Many pastry chefs have long specialised in tea biscuits and table pastries, while new biscuit makers have emerged and others have returned to their places of origin. However, the most famous and best-known biscuits are the ones from Santa Coloma de Farners and Camprodon, whose well-established industries send their boxes all over the world. In 1909, the name teula de Santa Coloma de Farners was patented, a fine evolution of the biscuits described in old recipe books such as La cuynera catalana, from 1835. A year later, in 1910, the industrial production of biscuits began in Camprodon.
When setting the table, biscuits play an important role: they are the perfect accompaniment to coffee, ideal for dipping in sweet wine, ratafia or teas. They are perfect for curbing hunger and keeping your energy up. And they also play a prominent role in cooking, as they are an ingredient in the picada, described in the chapter on dried fruit.
Biscuits with the 2025-2026 Girona Excel·lent seal
Pa Pa Orange Cookies
Miquel Porterias Costa opened the Porterias Bakery in 1925 in Cabanes. In the 1960s, his sons Gabriel and Joan Porterias Xifre took over the reins and in the 1970s they opened a kitchen in Figueres. At the beginning of the century, the third generation, Mercè Porterias Sales, daughter of Joan Porterias, and David Gibert, her husband, took over the business. In 2012 they created the Pa Pa brand, dedicated to bread and pastries, with stores in Figueres, Vilafant and Roses. One of their specialties are these orange cookies, made with sugar, spelt flour, butter, almonds and orange juice and zest.
Company: Forn de Pa Porterias – Fleques Pa Pa
Buckwheat Carquinyolis
Sweet Virginia is a biscuit company founded in 2024 in Les Preses as an extension of Alimentech, a business consultancy in the field of food safety and quality, founded by Dani Sala Prat in 2020. Dani Sala created Sweet Virginia with his wife and partner, pastry chef Virgínia Ruiz Lozoya. From their extensive catalogue, these classic carquinyolis stand out, made with a Garrotxa accent, thanks to the presence of buckwheat flour. Flavoured with vanilla and with almonds as the chosen dried fruit, they are ideal for desserts, dipping, table snacks and the traditional picades for finishing dishes from traditional Catalan cuisine.
Company: Sweet Virginia
Ametllats (almond biscuits)
Eulàlia Pallarès, restaurateur, and Jordi Fortià, industrial designer and chef, established La Galeta Artesana in 2017 on Carrer Bisbe Lorenzana in Girona. Thanks to their professional training, they designed the kitchen and devised the packaging of the biscuits, the advertising and website design themselves. These ametllats are one of their ‘revisited classics’: a crunchy almond biscuit decorated with almond pieces scattered on top and containing a high percentage of almonds: 25%.
Company: La Galeta Artesana
Neules (wafer rolls)
Neules have been at the centre of traditional patisserie for centuries, because it is a simple recipe based on egg yolks, sugar, cream, natural lemon essence and cinnamon. It is a wafer biscuit with a fine and crunchy texture that is rolled into a tube so it looks like a giant straw. Neules are one of the typical biscuits that are never missing from Christmas tables in Catalonia. Joaquim Trias i Vila, de Santa Coloma de Farners, que va començar a elaborar i vendre productes de pastisseria i galetes el 1908, en fa des del primer dia i és una de les seves celebrades especialitats.
Company: Trias
