Roscas (Filipino cuisine) facts for kids
Two pieces of the Leyte "roscas" joined together for presentation.
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Alternative names | Rosca de biscocho |
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Type | Cookie, pastry, biscuit |
Course | snack, dessert |
Place of origin | Philippines |
Region or state | Leyte and Samar |
Main ingredients | lard, anise, flour, sugar, butter, and egg yolks |
Variations | with tuba palm wine as liqueur ingredient |
In Philippine cuisine, roscas or biscocho de roscas refers to a pastry cookie product from the province of Leyte, mainly from the towns of Barugo and Carigara, made from lard, anise, flour, sugar, butter and eggs. Roscas are initially shaped as crescents or penannular rings (hence the name—roscas is Spanish for "rings"). Each of the roscas is then cut in half before baking, resulting in two separate elbow-shaped cookies.
While some claim that this pasalubong pastry cookie traces its history to the Spanish era, others have indicated that roscas-making in Leyte was started in the town of Barugo by a returning migrant in the late 1960s whose success was replicated in the nearby town of Carigara and the far town of Calbayog in Samar province. What original dish the roscas derive from remains unspecified, however.