Sunny Portugal to South African shores, sweet pastries that make for delish dessert recipes

Did you know pastries are made with only three ingredients – flour, fat, and water, that with time and region differ in how they are shaped, and kneaded, with or without the addition of more ingredients and fillings? These automatically put pastries, especially the sweet ones, in the not-so-healthy sweet recipe, category. Sit tight as we go through some of them that you will find under Italian dessert names to perhaps Middle Eastern desserts.

1. Apple Cider Doughnut

An autumn favourite in the northeastern part of the United States, particularly New England, apple cider doughnuts are a seasonal treat. They are distinguished by the addition of apple cider in the dough and come with a coating of cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. They were introduced by the Doughnut Company of America with the first recipe being recorded in 1951, and they've since become a staple. Apple orchards, farmers' markets, and fall festivals throughout the region commonly sell these doughnuts. They're often enjoyed alongside apple cider, served either hot or cold. Some people prefer to pair them with milk or coffee instead.

2. Bourekia

Bourekia are Cypriot pastries made with thin phyllo dough, turned into semi-circular shapes, with an assortment of fillings. The fillings might be either sweet or savoury, and go into the dough which is typically deep-fried until golden brown. The sweeter kind of bourekia contains anari cheese, a soft local whey cheese that is mixed with cinnamon and sugar and stuffed into the pockets. Usually, like it is with Greek and Middle Eastern phyllo pastries, rosewater or orange blossom water is added to the filling. The freshly fried pastries get dusted with cinnamon sugar or soaked in honey or sugar syrup. There's a special Lenten variant of the Bourekia, called Bourekia nistisima, which uses halva as filling.

3. Genovesi

Genovesi is Sicilian pastries filled with creamy custard or ricotta cream and the village of Erice is known for producing popular varieties of Genovesi alla Crema and Genovesi di Erice (in picture). The pastry dough is made with wheat flour, egg yolks, sugar and butter with a little bit of lemon zest for more flavour. Like most sweet pastries, Genovesi also receives a generous dusting of icing sugar before being served. These pastries are best enjoyed warm because they taste the best fresh just like most pastry desserts.

4. Bratislavský rožok

This Slovakian pastry has roots dating back centuries that is an art form in itself, for each pastry needs to be hand-rolled, to achieve the proper ratio of dough to filling. It comes in two varieties – a crescent shape with poppy seed filling and a C-shape containing ground walnuts. The distinctive golden marbled pattern on top of this sweet pastry is a hallmark of the rožok. Earliest historical records date back Bratislavský rožok to 1785, which originated from a Bratislava patisserie. Over time, it spread to Austrian and Hungarian cuisines, which use different names, such as the Pressburger Kipfel and Pozsonyi kifli.

5. Maple Bar Doughnut

Only the US can call a dessert bar a doughnut, and the Maple Bar doughnut is a prime example which is associated with the West Coast, particularly California. Unlike traditional round doughnuts, it is rectangular and topped with a maple glaze, a defining characteristic aside from the shape, and some versions include cream or custard fillings. The dough typically is made with flour, eggs, and yeast and the maple glaze is usually made with powdered sugar, salt, vanilla, and maple extract. The most popular variety of this dessert comes with two crispy strips of bacon or bacon bits or just an addition of chopped nuts.

6. Koeksister

Koeksister is a South African sweet pastry with a stickiness to it because once it's fried, it is soaked in chilled, sweet syrup or plain honey. It is made by cutting up the dough into strips and braiding them. Then these are fried and immediately soaked in the syrup. The locals love Koeksisters as a street food item and if you are visiting you can also find them in local supermarkets. The locals like to eat them with a sprinkle of cinnamon or a squeeze of lemon juice. There is also another specific version of the Koeksister associated with Cape Malay, where a ball of dough is fried and rolled in desiccated coconut.

7. Pastel de Santa Clara

These Portuguese pastries have a delicate and crispy shell with a rich filling of almond mixed with an egg yolk, that comes in a range of shapes and sizes. It's usually dusted with powdered sugar and you can have it hot, cold or at room temperature. Its origin traces back to the Santa Clara convent in Coimbra, where nuns first created them and the treat gained popularity in the 19th century when the nuns began selling them to local students. As the Portuguese people migrated, these pastries found their way to Brazil, where they also enjoyed popularity.