What Are Facturas? Argentina's Breakfast Pastries, Explained

Walk past a bakery in Buenos Aires or Montevideo on a weekday morning and you'll see people leaving with a paper bag of facturas, usually a dozen, to share at work or with mate at home. They're the everyday sweet pastries of Argentina and Uruguay.

So what is a factura?

Factura is the umbrella name for a whole family of small pastries, many of them laminated like a croissant, and most of them filled or topped with one of three things: dulce de leche, custard (crema pastelera) or membrillo, a firm quince paste.

Why are they named after an invoice?

In Spanish, factura means invoice or bill. The popular story goes back to Buenos Aires bakers in the late 1800s, a strongly unionised and anarchist-leaning trade, who gave their pastries cheeky names as a protest: vigilantes (police officers), bolas de fraile (friar's balls), cañoncitos (little cannons). Historians argue over the details, but the names stuck, and so did the word.

The ones to know

• Medialunas — "half moons", Argentina's smaller, sweeter croissants. Ours are made with pure butter and honey, plain or filled with custard, quince jam or caramel.
• Vigilantes — long, stick-shaped pastries, often with membrillo.
• Bolas de fraile — fried, sugar-dusted dough filled with dulce de leche or custard. Our Berlin doughnuts are their closest cousin on our counter.
• Cañoncitos — puff pastry tubes filled with dulce de leche, much like our cachitos.

Facturas at Dulce

Our mixed box of eight facturas covers the classics: custard, membrillo, plain and dulce de leche. From the other side of the Río de la Plata, the Uruguayan biscochos box mixes biscochos de grasa, margaritas, a vigilante and more.

Everything is baked fresh every morning. Order online for pickup from Delahey or Dulce Chico in Essendon, or browse all our South American pastries.