Maria Luisa

[nichi]

I have a friend that is asking me to try to make a Salvadorian dessert called a Maria Luisa for her husband but were a bit stumped at what exactly it is. The only two recipes I've found are for a layer cake type of dessert http://www.recipezaar.com/241930.

But this description we found fits what shes had in the past María Luisa is as luscious as the name implies. Filled with a dense, Salvadoran-style creme anglaise, the oblong pastel includes fragile top and bottom rice-flour crusts finished with a dusting of cinnamon sugar. Imagine tucking a fork into one of these!

Does anyone have any idea? I told her maybe there are two desserts called Maria Luisa, one cakey and one pastry?

[alanamoana]

sounds like a salvadorean version of a napoleon (a.k.a. mille feuille)

[Redsugar]

Here is a another recipe for the Maria Louisa Layer Cake.

[brucesw]

I have nearly a dozen Salvadoran restaurants within a few miles of me including a couple of panaderias so I've been sampling lots of them. One panaderia offers a bewildering array of pastries, etc., which unfortunately are not labeled and they don't seem to like being asked for information. Both serve a layer cake like the one in the upper left in this picture and have identified it as a Marialuisa (that's the way it's spelled on the flyer).

The lady from the second place, who's offering is not quite as luscious looking but is better tasting, identifies the filling as 'milk cream' in her best English.

I've also seen this at both places with a jam filling of some sort like the item at the bottom of the picture but I'm not sure if that's also called a Marialuisa.

Some of the other items listed on a flyer from the larger place include budines, enmieladas, quesadillas magdalenas, margaritas, marquezate, monjos, semitas, and picudas. The only other Salvadoran pastries I've identified for sure are buneulos and semitas.