Time.news – Discovering custard donuts, egg sponge cake and layers of coffee-soaked biscuits, in Lisbon and Porto, is a unique and rare experience of the palate and taste. Eating hot, freshly baked pastries is therefore also one of the best reasons to visit Portugal, suggests the Washington Post which also points out precise sweets: “From decadent cookie pie to shredded chicken breast puddings, there is a diverse tradition of sweets Portuguese that spans centuries of history and thousands of creations ”, specifies the newspaper, which lists them one by one.
Berlin Dola
Translated, it means “Berlin balls”, which were brought to Portugal “by German Jews who went to the beaches near Lisbon” and are one of the few Portuguese sweets to be fried and not baked. In fact, the country’s favorite donut-shaped pastry is proudly displayed in shop windows everywhere. The soft fried dough is rolled in granulated sugar before being cut in half and stuffed with sweet golden custard.
Jesuit
Many Portuguese sweets originated in convents and monasteries; Local nuns and monks mastered the art of pastry since the 15th century. “Although its name appears to have a religious heritage and its cover is reminiscent of the garments worn by Jesuit monks, Jesuíta was brought to Portugal by a Spanish pastry chef hired to work in a regular shop: Pastelaria Moura in Santo Tirso, north of Porto ”, says the Post. For over 140 years, triangular puff pastry covered with meringue glaze has been prepared following the traditional recipe, although in recent years the demand has grown exponentially: from 40,000 to 50,000 Jesuits are sold a month only in the Moura Pastry shop in Porto.
Pastelo in Suregal
“In an empty, well-ventilated room with fabrics on the floor, the pastry chefs patiently and carefully roll out the pieces of dough until they become thinner and thinner, testing the gluten’s elasticity to the maximum. Gradually the dough is transformed into transparent sheets that will form a rectangular package around a creamy filling based on eggs and sugar ”, is the ritual of the preparation. The 16th-century delicacy comes from the Convent of Nossa Senhora da Natividade, in the small village of Tentúgal, about 120 miles from Lisbon.
sponge cake
The pão-de-ló (sponge cake) is more like a “family” of sweets that have spread throughout Portugal since at least the 1700s, acquiring different characteristics in each place.
Wafer cake
It is the classic childhood dessert. Typically homemade, they are now ubiquitous in popular restaurants and small neighborhood tascas: stacked layers of Maria biscuits (originally known as Marie in England) soaked in coffee and interspersed with butter cream, sugar and, in some recipes, egg yolks. It is probably the most decadent Portuguese dessert, made with the English biscuit created in 1874, which has become the basis for many desserts around the world.