Now Open: Traditional Pastelería La Colmena Is Bringing a Little-Known Slice of Spanish Cuisine to Prahran Market

Cristina Jiménez is a former computer engineer turned pastry chef, and the sole force behind La Colmena, a traditional Spanish pastelería now open at Prahran Market. Jiménez was inspired to open the store during lockdown, when, for the first time in her life, she had time to reflect on what she really wanted to be doing. After noticing a lack of authentic Spanish desserts in Australia, La Colmena was born.

“It felt unfair to me that such a sweet chapter of Spain didn’t have the fame,” she tells Broadsheet. “This deserves to be here – especially in a city like Melbourne, with so much gastronomic diversity.

Jiménez is turning out a rotating array of pastries, all inspired by her upbringing in different regions of Spain. There are piononos, which originated in Granada and consist of rolled syrupy sponge cake with a custard filling and a topping of caramelised cream; doblegats, originally from the Balearic Islands and characterised by multiple layers of extremely crisp puff pastry filled with chocolate cream; and glaseados, a luscious cake from the south-eastern city of Almeria featuring layers of puff pastry, patisserie cream, meringue and toasted yolk. It’s the crowd favourite on weekends – the only time it’s on the menu.

There are also plans to have a special pastry on offer each month; the March special is a traditional Spanish cheesecake, silky and smooth and made with a recipe from Jiménez’s mother. “To me, it is the best cheesecake in the world,” she says. Unlike the famous Basque cheesecake, it's stirred in a pot, not baked.

Most of the pastries take two or more days to make – prepared and baked in Jiménez’s home (which has been converted into a council-approved commercial kitchen) before being brought to the market stall and laid out on a beautifully restored cabinet built in 1930s Ukraine.

Also on the menu: xuixos, a viennoiserie originally from the city of Girona in Catalonia, with a deep-fried and sugar-coated cylindrical sourdough shell filled with crema catalana (similar to creme brûlée). Plus, one of the oldest documented sweets in Spain – the tocino de cielo. Similar to a crème caramel, it’s made with just egg yolks, water and sugar, and is thought to have originated in the Andalusian city of Jerez de la Frontera in the 14th century.

For Jiménez, who comes from a family of chefs, serving traditional regional pastries is about providing Melburnians with a piece of Spanish cuisine that few outside the expat community are familiar with.

“It’s an act of generosity to share all of this and introduce our flavours, our cultures and our history.”

La Colmena
Stall T20, Harvest Hall, 166 Commercial Road, South Yarra

Hours:
Tue 7am till sold out

Wed Closed
Thu to Sat 7am till sold out

Sun 10am till sold out

lacolmena.com.au
@lacolmena_melbourne