What is a medialuna?

What makes it a medialuna and not just a small croissant?

Three things: the dough, the shape and the glaze. A medialuna is made from an enriched, sweetened dough, so the crumb is softer and more bread-like than the lean laminated dough of a croissant. It is rolled tighter and smaller, which is why two of them is a normal serving rather than one. And it is finished with syrup rather than an egg wash, brushed on while the tray is still hot, which is where the shine comes from.

The result is a pastry that is sweet enough to eat on its own but not sweet enough to be a dessert. That is the position it occupies in Argentina: the default thing you eat in the morning, and again in the afternoon.

De manteca or de grasa: what is the difference?

De manteca means made with butter. These are the sweeter, softer, glossier ones, and they are what most people picture when they hear the word. De grasa means made with lard. Those are drier, barely sweet, a little saltier, and they are the ones Argentines eat with cheese or ham rather than with dulce de leche.

Both are medialunas and neither is a substitute for the other. The plain butter ones are medialunas clásicas.

Why are they brushed with syrup?

The syrup — almíbar — does two jobs. It glazes the top, which is the shine you see in every panadería window, and it holds a little moisture in the crumb so the pastry does not dry out as quickly as an unglazed one would. It has to go on while the medialunas are hot, straight out of the oven, or it sits on the surface instead of soaking in.

This is also the single clearest tell between a medialuna and a croissant. If it is shining and slightly sticky, it is a medialuna.

What is a factura?

Factura is the Argentine word for the whole family of small sweet pastries a panadería sells by weight or by the dozen — medialunas, vigilantes, bolas de fraile, cañoncitos filled with dulce de leche. The medialuna is the most common one by a distance. So every medialuna is a factura, and most facturas are not medialunas.

What does rellena mean?

Rellena means filled. A medialuna rellena is piped after it has been baked and glazed, so the pastry stays crisp instead of steaming from the inside. Dulce de leche is the classic — a caramel made by cooking milk and sugar slowly for hours — and pistachio cream and Nutella are the two that have followed it everywhere. The filled ones are the línea rellena, and dulce de leche is where most people start.

How do Argentines eat medialunas?

Twice a day, with coffee. At breakfast, usually two with a café con leche. And again at merienda, the late-afternoon coffee around five o’clock that sits between lunch and a very late dinner — that is when a bag of medialunas gets carried home from the panadería.

They are ordered by the dozen, not by the piece. Half a dozen is a small order. Nobody buys one.

How many should you order per person?

a dozen serves about 4 people

For a breakfast where the medialunas are the main thing on the table, count two per person and a few spare. Where they are one item among several, one each is enough. The table below has the sizes side by side.

Where can you buy medialunas in Richmond?

From this kitchen, which is the only place in the Richmond area baking them. They are made to order rather than kept in a case: you order in the shop, the order joins that week’s batch, and you collect them on the day they are baked. How ordering works sets out the four steps.

Thursday 11:59pm