Portuguese pastry, Lisbon, artisan craftsmanship
Dom Rodrigo: the Algarve sweet you unwrap like a candy
A rustle first. You pull at two corners of metallic paper, the golden ball appears, sticky, dusted with cinnamon. Dom Rodrigo is the only Portuguese pastry you…
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Uvada: the harvest sweet they boiled at night, without sugar
There is no sugar in uvada. Not a gram. This Portuguese harvest sweet draws all of its sweetness from the grape itself, reduced for hours over a wood fire, out…
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Tigelada: the dessert baked in the village bread oven, after the bread
The oven has just given up its bread. The vault is still glowing, the embers pushed to the back: that exact moment is what the earthenware dishes of tigelada…
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Brisas do Lis: the Leiria cake that had to change its name
They were called the little kisses of the Lis, until the jokes at the counter forced Leiria to find another name. The story of the brisas do Lis: almond, egg…
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Ceylon cinnamon: the bark the Portuguese found by accident
On a pastel de nata that is still warm, it comes last, in a gesture lasting one second. Yet this brown powder has crossed an ocean, a storm and a century and a…
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Alfarroba: the Algarve's black gold, harvested with a long pole
In late August, in the hills behind the Algarve coast, you hear it long before you see anything: a dry, repeated clatter, steady as hail on a stretched…
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Papos de anjo: the egg-yolk cake that is cooked twice
It leaves the oven baked, golden and domed — and yet the work is not finished. The papo de anjo goes straight into a pan of warm syrup, where it swells a…
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Jesuíta: the crackling triangle Santo Tirso guards so fiercely
Some pastries announce themselves by sound. The jesuíta of Santo Tirso starts with a thin crust of sugar that gives way in one clean snap, before the puff…
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Pastel de Chaves: the recipe bought from a stranger in 1862
A half-moon of puff pastry, a veal filling, and a recipe bought for one pound from a street seller whose name nobody ever learned. The most mysterious savoury…
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