{"id":222,"date":"2019-12-05T14:24:56","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T22:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/?p=222"},"modified":"2020-02-24T14:38:31","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T22:38:31","slug":"sweet-convent-pastries-of-portugal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/sweet-convent-pastries-of-portugal\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweet Convent Pastries of Portugal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Portuguese<\/p>\n

by Jeri Quinzio<\/em><\/p>\n

Portuguese sweets are divine, which may be because they originated in convents. Back in the 16th\u00a0century, the country\u2019s Roman Catholic nuns drew on a heritage of Islamic confectionery and an abundance of egg yolks to create unique, delectable pastries. The convents were dissolved early in the 19th\u00a0century, but fortunately for us the pastries continue to be made, often from the same recipes, and attributed to those long-departed nuns. Today, the pastries are served around the world, from Montreal to Mozambique to Macao, but nowhere are they better than in Portugal.<\/p>\n

The pastries are still known as\u00a0doces conventuais<\/em>\u00a0in Portuguese; convent sweets in English. Individual tarts, they consist of a flaky crust and a rich eggy filling, but each convent and, now, each town or even pastry shop has its own special take on the tarts. The filling might be a typical custard or simply\u00a0ovos moles<\/em> (translated as soft eggs), which is nothing more than egg yolks and sugar cooked together to create sweet spreadable gold. The nuns had an excess of egg yolks because egg whites were used to clarify wine, to apply gold and silver leaf to church altars, and to starch nun\u2019s wimples, the traditional head covering nuns once wore. They wouldn\u2019t have thought of wasting the leftover egg yolks. They used them to create their sublime pastries..<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"Today, some bakers add, coconut or almonds or even white beans to the filling of their past\u00e9is<\/em>,\u00a0or pastries. But I found the basic\u00a0ovos moles<\/em>\u00a0of the famed\u00a0past\u00e9is de Nata<\/em>\u00a0to be the best. The tops of the pastries are baked at such high heat that they\u2019re nearly charred, the pastry is crisp, the eggy filling lusciously creamy and sweet.<\/p>\n

In the town of Bel\u00e9m, my friends and I lined up along with dozens of other customers outside a bakery called Antiga\u00a0Confeitaria de Bel\u00e9m<\/em>\u00a0to buy\u00a0past\u00e9is de Bel\u00e9m<\/em>, small tarts with a custard filling that\u2019s still warm from the oven. With their lush filling and crackling crisp pastry, they were well worth the wait.<\/p>\n

We visited the tiny town of Tent\u00fagal, which is known for its special\u00a0past\u00e9is du Tent\u00fagal<\/em>, an oblong pastry filled with\u00a0ovos moles<\/em>. At O Afonso, a local pastry shop, we watched as a baker took an eight-pound lump of dough made from nothing but flour and water and stretched and flipped it until it covered an area of probably 12 by 15 feet. By the time she was through, the dough was thin enough to read through.<\/p>\n

After it was stretched to her satisfaction, she cut it into small shapes, layered a few, and added some pastry scraps in the center for extra strength. She then dipped a feather into clarified butter and ever so delicately sprinkled a few drops of the melted butter onto the pastry. Next, she spooned a line of the egg yolk and sugar filling onto the pastry. She quickly rolled it into a rectangle, folded the ends up, and placed it on a baking sheet along with dozens of others and put them in an intensely hot oven. When they were baked, the folded ends of the pastries formed little ruffles, the pastry itself was shatteringly crisp, and the filling was heavenly. The pastry is made with just five simple ingredients \u2013 flour, water, butter, sugar, and egg yolks – but with consummate skill and many years of practice.<\/p>\n

There are other sweets in Portugal, and you\u2019ll find a pastry shop on nearly every street. Home cooks in Portugal also excel at desserts. We visited one home where we were greeted with a creamy rich rice pudding topped with cinnamon spelling out the word \u201cWelcome.\u201d Portuguese bakers and home cooks use cinnamon to decorate as well as flavor their puddings.<\/p>\n

While I was in Portugal, I also sampled cookies and cakes and ice cream and even a few desserts using egg whites. I loved the simple crisp meringues called\u00a0suspiros<\/em>, or sighs, a perfect name. Another favorite was a dessert called\u00a0Molotov<\/em>\u00a0for reasons no one could explain to me. It\u2019s similar to Floating Island. Made two ways, it may be a poached meringue in a pool of custard, as we would expect. Or it can be a baked meringue served with a caramel sauce. Both are light and delectable, however the name remains a mystery.<\/p>\n

All of the Portuguese sweets are good, but the egg yolk pastries originated so long ago by the nuns are special. Visiting Portugal without indulging in at least a few convent sweets would be sinful.<\/p>\n

Portugal abounds in pastry shops. There\u2019s one on nearly every corner, and every one is filled with tempting tastes. These are just two of my favorites.<\/p>\n

The home of past\u00e9is du Tent\u00fagal is:
\nO Afonso<\/em>
\nN 111 Estradas Nacionas
\nTent\u00fagal, Portugal<\/p>\n

The home of past\u00e9is de Bel\u00e9m is:
\nAntiga Confeitaria de Bel\u00e9m<\/em>
\nR. de Bel\u00e9m 84 92
\n1300-085 Lisboa, Portugal<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"About the author:<\/em><\/p>\n

Jeri Quinzio is a freelance writer whose latest book is\u00a0Dessert: A Tale of Happy Endings<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Food historian Ken Albala called it \u201ca perfectly delightful romp through the history of puddings and cakes and custards, everything from syllabubs to strawberry ice cream. Bring a big spoon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Jeri Quinzio Portuguese sweets are divine, which may be because they originated in convents. Back in the 16th\u00a0century, the country\u2019s Roman Catholic nuns drew on a heritage of Islamic confectionery and an abundance of egg yolks to create unique, delectable pastries. The convents were dissolved early in the 19th\u00a0century, but fortunately for us the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[74],"class_list":{"0":"post-222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-europe-travel","8":"tag-portuguese-pastry","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}