Portuguese pastry, Lisbon, artisan craftsmanship
Castanhas assadas: the white smoke that brings autumn to Lisbon
A column of white smoke on a street corner, a smell of embers and salt, a cry: "Quentes e boas!". In Lisbon, autumn does not arrive with the calendar. It…
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Arrufada de Coimbra: the sweet bread carried to engagements
Sold from baskets under a white cloth at Coimbra station, left to rise for twenty-four hours under a blanket, the arrufada was also how a fiancé was introduced…
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Bolo lêvedo: the Furnas bread whose age nobody knows
It cooks on a floured griddle, never in an oven, in a volcanic valley of the Azores. Lenten flatbread, 19th-century loaf or English bathers' idea: the story of…
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Cristas de galo: the Vila Real turnover that lost its convent
Little teeth cut into the edge of an almond turnover: that is all that remains of the convent of Santa Clara in Vila Real. The story of a Poor Clares pastry…
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Trouxas de ovos: the little egg bundle you bring home from Caldas da Rainha
A thin sheet of egg poached in boiling syrup, rolled around its own trimmings, glossy as a jewel. Nobody ever leaves Caldas da Rainha without a small box of…
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Pastel de bacalhau: the salt cod shaped between two spoons
It comes out of the oil golden, with three sharp ridges and a soft centre. Behind the pastel de bacalhau lies a fish Portugal does not catch in its own waters,…
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Pastel de Vouzela: the recipe nobody ever wrote down
Very thin pastry, a cream of egg yolks, a veil of icing sugar. The pastel de Vouzela came out of a Porto convent, is still made by hand, and its recipe has…
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Bolo de mel: the Madeira cake you break by hand, never with a knife
A low, dark, dense disc studded with almonds and walnut halves. On Madeira it is baked on 8 December so that it is ready for Christmas, and it is never sliced:…
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Pinhoada: the honey and pine nut diamond from Alcácer do Sal's roads
A brown diamond, hard as a tile, folded two by two into thick white paper. The pinhoada from Alcácer do Sal is made of just two things: honey and the nuts of…
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