Making Mallorcan Biscuits The Old Way

Continuing our Destination of the Month theme, I would like to tell you about a visit that our “Winter Activities” group made recently to a biscuit factory in Porreres, Mallorca.

Galletas Gelabert in Porreres make traditional Mallorcan galletes d’oli (or olive oil biscuits) in the same way that they have been making them since 1979 when they opened.

You may have heard of these savoury biscuits that are so popular in Mallorca with the locals. They are present in most events where snacks are served, they are always present at any kind of wine tasting event and you can normally find a small bag of them in any Mallorcan person’s pocket. Sometimes they are served with a spreading of sobrassada or pâté on top.

If you’re still not sure what these biscuits are, you may know them as Quely biscuits or Quelitas. Quely is a more commercial brand that makes these biscuits, based in the town of Inca. Often the Spanish people use a brand name to identify something; like how they often call all yoghurts “Danone’s”.

But the place we visited, Galletas Gelabert, is much smaller and more local than Quely. We were lucky enough to have a tour of the factory where we saw the biscuits start off as dough, be cut into shape by the cutter-outer machine (yes, technical term) and finally make the long trek on a conveyor belt through the room-length oven, coming out at the other end as biscuits ready to be eaten.

These savoury biscuits that are so popular in Mallorca are nothing complex or very special really; they are plain but very addictive. They are dry and crunchy and are made simply from wheat flour and olive oil with a little yeast and a little salt. Traditionally they contain lard too and this is still added to the mixture at Galletas Gelabert.

Next we moved into the packaging room, where two women were weighing the biscuits into bags ready to go to the shops.

In this area we also saw the other side of the business, which makes the dried pasta, in the shape of noodles, typical to Mallorca, often used in soups.

It was a very interesting visit and we were given a bag each of these biscuits to take away with us and we all enjoyed them very much (except the person who left them at the top of Montesion Hill later that aftenoon – you know who you are!).

You can discover more about Mallorca’s rich gastronomy here.

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