A Filipino pastry, reinvented in Dubai
For the uninitiated, the ensaymada may be an unfamiliar term. A traditional Filipino pastry topped with cheese, this hero bake has made a splash in Dubai recently, all thanks to SHUKR Bakehouse – a brand new concept churning out the very dish found missing in the city. Co-founded by hospitality veteran Panchali Mahendra, Rashed Yakhlef and a third partner, SHUKR’s fresh buns have taken over Dubai, and for the right reasons.
Picture this: a pillowy, subtle-y sweet bun, made rich with lashings of butter, piled high with an airy frosting and packed over with a generous crown of finely shredded cheese. This is as indulgent as it gets, and the pastry is paired with the only other item on the menu – a specially-crafted coffee also topped with cheese, meant to be complimentary to the snack.
Behind The Bun
Beloved in The Philippines, the ensaymada finds it’s roots in Spain – a brioche iteration of the Spanish ensaïmada brought to the country during the colonial period. Back on the island of Mallorca, the pastry dates back to the 17th century, and was traditionally made with lard – essential in creating the original format of flaky, spiral-shaped dough dusted with powdered sugar.
The name itself comes from this ingredient profile – from the Catalan word saïm, meaning lard.
When it came to The Philippines, the local bakers gave it a twist, switching out the lard with decadent butter, and replacing the flake with soft bread. The cheese came next, adding that sweet-savoury element that is highly popular in Filipino cooking – typically an edam or queso de bola, especially during Christmas. The sugar was the final touch, dusted over top.
As with any cultural exchange, the pastry saw many centuries of adaptations due to reasons like scarcity, differing climates and the rise of mass production. Lard, expensive and scarce in the islands, was replaced with cheaper alternatives; the spiral, time-consuming and difficult to create in the humidity, turned into the simple bun, more suitable for the casual format it had taken on. Now an afternoon snack found on streetside stalls and local bakeries, it found a new life.
From The Philippines to Dubai
The idea for SHUKR started when Yakhlef, an airline pilot, returned from the Philippines with a box of ensaymadas. Mahendra was hooked, and after searching Dubai for a version that recreated that first bite, the team decided to make their own. Months of testing and tasting with Chef Carol Contreras, Group Head Pastry Chef at Atelier House Hospitality, with, according to the founders, “an irresponsible amount of cheese” involved along the way.
Contreras, an Argentinian pastry chef explains how important it was to get the bake right, given it’s the only dish on the menu.
“When the concept is centred around one hero product, every detail matters. The dough, the fermentation, the texture, the balance of sweetness and salt, and of course, the cheese. We kept refining it until we had something we were genuinely excited to serve.”
For Mahendra, who has more than two decades of hospitality experience and has worked across around 70 restaurant concepts, SHUKR is a departure from the full-scale restaurants she is accustomed to creating.
“With SHUKR, the challenge was beautifully simple: take one thing we love and give it our complete attention,” she says.
Built On Gratitude
The name SHUKR means gratitude in Arabic, while also playfully echoing shakkar, the word for sugar used across South Asian languages.
The theme continues through the brand’s visual identity, which takes inspiration from postage stamps, parcels and origin marks. Described as a small “postal house of gratitude”, the packaging is designed to make each order feel like a little delivery worth looking forward to.
SHUKR’s first chapter is titled Origin Stamp, Issue No. 01, accompanied by the fitting declaration: Thank God for Ensaymadas.
Sources: https://lolainay.com/the-sweet-spirals-journey-how-ensaymada-evolved-and-shed-its-iconic-swirl-in-the-philippines
Image credit: Supplied/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/4011087171195233// https://www.pinterest.com/pin/303078249896859928/
Deeply passionate about food, culture and community, Manaal loves telling extraordinary stories of ordinary people. Besides sniffing out a tale to tell, her favourite things to do include binging true crime documentaries, chasing cats on the streets and curating a good outfit.
