Best Bakeries in Hvar: What to Buy and Where

Best bakery Hvar: the short answer

Hvar town's Nonica is the sweet stop to prioritise: a pastry shop, not a bread bakery, selling cakes made to homemade recipes with local ingredients.

For biscuits and candied peel to carry to the beach or onto the ferry, look for the island's dry sweets: paprenjoci, pandoleti, arancini and limuncini all keep well. Creamy rožata and fried pršurate are best eaten the day you buy them.

What Hvar bakeries sell that you will not find at home

Hvar's traditional sweets grew out of garden ingredients and a time before fridges, so most old recipes are for dry cakes that keep. Expect lemon and orange peel, almonds, honey and local spirits rather than chocolate and cream.

Many recipes are family secrets, and the same cake varies from cook to cook. Ask for the island name rather than an English description, since the local names are what the counter staff know.

Nonica in Hvar town: cakes made to family recipes

Nonica, whose name means granny, sells almost forgotten genuine sweets made from homemade ingredients following traditional recipes. It is a pastry shop rather than a bread bakery, so treat it as a sweet stop after a meal or with coffee.

Pair a cake with coffee at one of the town's cafés if you want to sit down; our guide to coffee Hvar covers where to drink it.

The Hvar sweets to look for by name

Learn these names before you go: rožata, Hvarski cviti, Pitve cake, arancini, limuncini, bruštuloni menduli, paprenjoci, pandoleti, pršurate and hrustule. Each is a distinct local sweet with its own texture and keeping qualities.

The Jelsa tourist board lists these as the most popular sweets of its region, which covers the middle of the island rather than Hvar town alone.

Rožata: the caramel custard to order first

Rožata, also written rožada, is Hvar's answer to crème caramel: a chilled custard with a caramelised sugar top. It is made from just milk, sugar, eggs, water and lemon peel, and the skill lies in the proportion between the set custard and the caramel.

Order it on a hot afternoon, when the cooling custard is at its most welcome, and eat it on the spot. It does not travel, so do not plan to carry it home.

Hvarski cviti and paprenjoci: the dry biscuits that travel well

Hvarski cviti, or flower cakes, are simple biscuits made with eggs, sugar, flour, fat, lemon and orange peel, milk and a little anise. Paprenjoci from Stari Grad are honey biscuits spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, and despite the name pepper is not an ingredient.

Both keep well, which makes them the practical choice for a gift or a picnic. Paprenjoci have been recorded in Stari Grad since the 16th century and are now the island's symbol for major occasions.

If you want a proper sit-down breakfast before a day of sweet shopping, see our guide to breakfast Hvar for where to start.

Pitve cake: the almond cake from the village of Pitve

Pitve cake comes from the village of Pitve and is made without flour, using eggs, almonds, sugar and lemon peel. That makes it suitable for anyone avoiding gluten, though a cook may add chocolate, which can introduce gluten.

If you are coeliac, ask whether chocolate has been added before you buy. The plain almond version is the one to choose.

Arancini and limuncini: candied peel sweets to take home

Arancini and limuncini are slices of candied orange or lemon peel, made from nothing more than sugar and citrus. They last a long time, which makes them a good souvenir from a Mediterranean holiday.

These are intensely sweet, so a small bag goes a long way with coffee — buy a modest amount rather than a large one.

Bruštuloni menduli: sugar-roasted almonds for a gift

Bruštuloni menduli are sugar-roasted almonds made across Dalmatia, traditionally given as gifts for special occasions. The ingredients are only almonds, sugar and water, but getting the sugar coating right takes experience.

They are robust enough for hand luggage and make a better gift than a cream cake. Look for them alongside the candied peel.

Pršurate, hrustule and pandoleti: the fried and dunked sweets

Pršurate, also called fritule, are sweet fritters made for Christmas Eve and other feast days, from eggs, flour, rakija and citrus peel. Hrustule, or kroštule, are the crisp fried ribbons known as crostoli under Venetian rule, and pandoleti are almond finger biscuits traditionally dunked in tea, wine or prošek.

Fritters are at their best warm, so eat them fresh rather than saving them. Pandoleti are the opposite: dry, long-lasting and ideal with a glass of prošek.

For a scoop rather than a pastry, our pick of the best ice cream Hvar covers where to go.

How to buy: what to ask for and how sweets are sold

Ask for sweets by their Croatian names: rožata, paprenjak, pandoleti, arancini. A pastry shop selling family-recipe cakes and dry sweets is the natural stop for these.

For more dessert options, including sit-down sweets, see our guide to dessert Hvar.

Sweet shop or bakery: which stop suits which moment of the day

A pastry shop suits a sit-down treat with coffee, while a bakery stop is better for biscuits and candied peel to carry to the beach. If you need something savoury, pick up bread and cheese at the Hvar market in the morning.

The Hvar fish market is the place for fresh fish if you are cooking, but it is not a sweet stop. For everyday supplies, the supermarkets in Hvar cover the basics.

The sweet stop to make first

Start at Nonica in Hvar town for a cake made to a family recipe, then buy paprenjoci or candied peel for the journey home. Leave rožata and fritters for eating on the spot, when they are at their best.

Nonica is the sweet shop identified here for family-recipe cakes; for other shops, look for the island sweets by name and ask which are made locally.