Escudella, carn d’olla, seafood, polvorones, turrones, roscones… and panettone. It’s been a while since this Italian bun has entered our gastronomic Christmas imaginary, earning a space among the usual sweets with its spongy presence and its buttery sponge cake flavor.
Whether you’re used to cutting it with a knife, or you’re one of those who pinch them off to dip the pieces in milk or coffee, you’ll agree with us that panettone is a delicacy that has earned a place on our tables on its own merit.
And as, of course, in this city we have a good number of bakeries and ovens that make this sweet as good as the best of the Italians, and we wanted to make a list of the best panettones in Barcelona to guide your steps when buying one of the trendy sweets of this Christmas 2023.
Suca’l. Officially, the best panettone in the world.
Tonatiuh Cortés, a Mexican based in Barcelona, has become one of the key people to talk about breads and panettones. His was awarded in 2019, and watching the manufacturing process, with very slow fermentations and an intense flavor of butter and egg yolk is a pleasure. By the way, almost all the products he uses are organic.
📍 Carrer del Rosselló, 112 – Carrer de Fluvià, 113
💸 40€
Find in Barcelona the two best panettones of Spain in 2024
Barcelona hosts not one but the two pastry shops that make the two best panettones in the country in 2024.
On the one hand, there is Mervier Canal, one of the best pastry shops in Barcelona, which has taken the prize for the best classic panettone, revalidating a mastery in pastry that already demonstrates its three titles for the best croissant in the country.
On the other hand, the pastry shop Madeleine by Ferrières Barcelona, less than two years old, has won the prize for the best chocolate panettone in Spain 2024 with the recipe of its pastry chef Felipe Santa Cruz, who has been rewarded for his efforts after several years perfecting his recipe.
Panes Creativos by Daniel Jordà
High gastronomy bread far from the center of Barcelona. Daniel Jordà elaborates in Panes Creativos high gastronomy breads in a bakery in Nou Barris, reinventing classic breads and creating fantasy breads (like an artichoke and sobrasada braid or a pumpkin and blueberry bread), but also elaborating sweets that are the hallmark of the best Barcelona pastries.
Its panettone is the best example of this, awarded Best Panettone of Spain in 2021 and 2022 with its traditional version, a product with a honeycombed, elastic and delicate crumb that, with more than 24 hours of final rest, has the right moisture and fluffiness. In addition to the fruit version, there are Chocolate Grand Cru and Gianduja and orange versions. The price, by the way, remains at 25€, as last year, to facilitate its consumption also to the people of Nou Barris where the oven is located.
📍Plaça de Garrigó, 5, Barcelona
💸 25€
L’Atelier Barcelona, the solidarity panetonne
Eric Ortuño is a founding partner of l’Atelier Barcelona, and has worked with masters such as Jean François Arnaud or Yves Thuries, one of the most renowned pastry chefs in France, and here he has been head of studies at the Hofmann school. Together with Jordà, he was the winner in 2022 of the prize for the best chocolate panettone.
His winning panettone is made of Azelia de Valrhona chocolate and hazelnut gianduja, in 750 format and has a tender, honeyed crumb that is a pleasure to bite into. This year the bakery is once again participating in a solidarity initiative with its panettones, so 10% of the 5000 panettones they plan to bake will go to the Vall d’Hebron Oncology Institute.
📍 C. de Viladomat, 140 bis
💸 40€
Vallflorida, the bakery with the two best panettones in the country in 2023.
A short hour’s drive away, at the foot of the Montseny natural park, a pastry shop bakes what is already the best artisan panettone in Spain in 2023.
The pastry chef hidden in the mountain of Lluís Costa, from Vallflorida Xocolaters, a pastry shop in Sant Esteve de Palautordera that has won a historic award: for the first time a pastry shop wins in the traditional category (the classic fruit panettone) and in the chocolate one, something that had never happened until now.
📍Carretera del Montseny, 12, 08461 Sant Esteve de Palautorderaç
💸 29€
Ochiai, the Japanese influence
The Ochiai pastry shop is a rarity and, therefore, a privilege, a Japanese-inspired pastry shop, run by Jordi Morelló, which has been operating since the 1980s in Sant Antoni. His mochis are an institution in Barcelona, and his dorayakis (the candied soy cakes eaten by Doraemon) also have pilgrims, but his panetton, pure Western pastries, are also magnificent.
So much so that their panettone OCHA won the Best Panettone of 2018 Award: well fermented, honeycombed and balanced, it is crowned with a halo of powdered sugar great, which can also be purchased in their versions with green tea or sakura, the Japanese cherry blossom, to make the immersion that touches in this pastry shop.
📍 Carrer Comte d’Urgell, 110
💸 29€
Oriol Carrió, panetonne with limoncello flavor
The bakery with 40 years of history of the Carrió family is another classic place to find some of the best panetones in the city.This Christmas they have revised it to offer a new and original version: a panetonne with limocello flavor.
It is made with panettone dough and filled with lemons macerated in limoncello and white chocolate. The result is a panettone that navigates between sweet and acid in a smooth way, with the recognizable airy and very spongy texture that makes this limoncello panettone the star of breakfasts, after-dinner meals and snacks for those with a sweet tooth.
📍 C/ de Bailèn, 216
💸 46€
Hofmann, the giant panettone
The Hofmann bakery has presented for this Christmas a big bet: its XXL panettone, weighing 4kg. It is the largest that is made in the state, but, despite the size, maintains the tenderness and aroma of a quality artisan panettone made with too much mother and a long fermentation.
They’ve made it in collaboration with Bean to bar at the Chocolate Museum, and it’s made with organic cocoa and roasted vanilla, with two 60-hour fermentations, resulting in a beastly creamy and light texture, and a high-definition chocolate and bourbon vanilla flavor. They also sell Pandoro, the Venetian sweet bread, first cousin of panettone.
📍C/ dels Flassaders, 44
💸 29€
Pavolucci’s vegan panettone, or vegattone.
Chiara and Francesca are Italian twins who have opened Pavolucci, where last year they sold 5000 panettones, from a family bakery that started small with a non-baking family. “We are linked to the hotel business, but we are self-taught.
Their vegan panettone, a test that sold out of stock right away, is now on pause in favor of the normal one, which is in too much demand, but they will recover it soon, and it is a good test in a sweet that, as they explain “is totally non-vegan, so we have needed many tests to make a similar one”, with ingredients such as vegetable butter, virgin olive oil and orange and grape and raisin flavor.
📍Comte Borrell, 65 Barcelona
💸 22€ (the 1/2 kg.)
You may be interested in: The best plans and what to do this Christmas 2023 in Barcelona.