Where to find Palma's best plain ensaïmada

Ask ten people in Palma where to buy an ensaïmada and you'll get ten answers, most of them involving somebody's grandmother. The spiral pastry is the island's edible signature: a long-fermented dough enriched with saïm (pork lard, which is where the name comes from), coiled, proved overnight and dusted with icing sugar.

Most visitors go straight for the filled versions: cabell d'àngel (pumpkin jam), cream, chocolate. If you want to know who actually bakes well, order the plain one, the ensaïmada llisa (lisa in Spanish). With no filling there's nowhere for a tired dough to hide, so you're judging the bake itself.

We narrowed Palma down to four bakeries worth comparing. Three are genuine heritage ovens; the fourth is a modern baker reviving old recipes. They're all within a 15-minute walk of each other in the old town, which makes a morning tasting very doable. The side-by-side comparison is at the bottom of this guide.

What to look for on the label

Since 2003 the Ensaïmada de Mallorca has been a Protected Geographical Indication (IGP). To carry the name it has to be made on Mallorca, with saïm rather than butter or vegetable fat, using the traditional long fermentation. Genuine ones come with a numbered label from the Consell Regulador, the body that polices the rules.

That label matters most at the airport and in supermarkets, where plenty of "Mallorcan-style" pastries are nothing of the sort. At the four bakeries below, you're safe.

Forn Fondo: the specialist benchmark

Start at Forn Fondo, on Carrer de la Unió, a family bakery trading since 1742. The name means "the deep oven": the original oven sat at the very back of the premises, at the end of an old Capuchin alleyway. It's now run by the fourth generation of the family, siblings Pau and Neus Llull Riera.

This is the purest test of the four. Every ensaïmada carries the IGP seal, and the bakery treats the plain llisa as one of its classics, sold in sizes from a 60 g individual up to a 2 kg one for the table. Buy the smallest. It's a counter shop built for takeaway, so plan to eat it on a bench nearby rather than settle in.

Ca'n Joan de s'Aigo: three centuries of café tradition

Ca'n Joan de s'Aigo is Palma's oldest café and the most historically interesting stop on this list. The story starts around 1700 with Joan Thomàs, who brought snow down from the Serra de Tramuntana, stored it in mountain snow houses and turned it into some of Mallorca's first sorbets. Hot chocolate and ensaïmadas followed, and the house has been serving them ever since.

Go to the flagship on Carrer de Can Sanç, behind the church of Santa Eulàlia, rather than one of the newer branches. Blue-and-white tiles, Gordiola glass chandeliers, marble tables: it's the room that keeps the old house's look. Sit down and eat your plain ensaïmada fresh at the table. Taste a few bites completely plain first, then order the almond ice cream or a thick hot chocolate to go with the rest, the way locals have done for generations.

It gets busy at weekends and through the summer, so arrive early or expect a short queue.

Forn del Santo Cristo: the Palma institution

Forn del Santo Cristo was founded in 1910 by the Coll family on Carrer dels Paraires, which makes it younger than the first two but still one of the oldest bakeries on the island. The name, the story goes, comes from a baker who burnt a whole batch, threw a crucifix in the air and shouted "Santo Cristo!".

Its fame as an ensaïmada house dates from 1960, when brothers Àngel and Pedro Calleja took over and started delivering ensaïmadas to Palma's hotels. There are now several branches around the city, including Carrer de Sant Miquel and Plaça del Marquès del Palmer, but for a fair comparison use the original shop on Paraires.

If you want to fly some home, this is the easiest place for it: their boxed ensaïmadas are made to travel.

Fornet de la Soca: the modern wildcard

Fornet de la Soca, on Plaça de Weyler, is a different proposition. It isn't a bakery that has traded for centuries; its appeal is that baker Tomeu Arbona goes looking for the old ones. He collects recipes from Mallorcan homes and monasteries and bakes with recovered local flours like xeixa, an approach one French journalist called "archaeological gastronomy".

Alongside the plain llisa you'll find rarer things you won't see elsewhere, including old-style versions sold by the slice. Include it as the wildcard: can a modern, heritage-obsessed baker beat the three historic shops at their own game?

Run your own blind taste test

With four bakeries this close together, a blind tasting is the obvious move, and it's a good excuse to walk the old town on a weekday morning.

• Buy small and plain. Ask for the smallest ensaïmada llisa (or lisa, sin relleno) at each.
• Buy them close together. Ideally all within the same hour, so freshness is a fair fight.
• Keep it plain. Don't heat them, and don't start with coffee or chocolate. You want to taste the pastry, not the drink.
• Score in order: crust, then the pull of the layers, interior moisture, saïm richness, sweetness, and overall lightness.

The head-to-head we find most interesting is Forn Fondo against Ca'n Joan de s'Aigo: the specialist bakery benchmark against the centuries-old café tradition. Santo Cristo then tells you how Palma's best-known institution compares, and Fornet de la Soca tests whether a modern revivalist can beat all three.