Sunday, August 15, 2010

Portuguese Pastries

During the summer, there are many different festivals on this island.  We went to a festival not too long ago and there was a food tent with some local food goodness- we were mainly interested in the pastries.  ;)  I can't give you much info about these pastries; we sampled three different kinds, and I'm not sure what any of them were called.  Oops.  But I will describe them for you.  The one in the above photo seems to be many sheets of puff pastry with a cream filling inside, sprinkled with powdered sugar.  I have a friend here who makes these- I want her to teach me how, soon.  :)  She says they're really easy!  After I learn, I'll post the recipe here. 

This little chocolate one is a tiny chocolate cake baked in a tart shape, covered with chocolate, and filled with a white cream filling. 
The pastry in the above photo is the one I had- it looks like a canoe filled with lemon curd!  And actually, the filling is what they call "Egg Cream"..... it's kind of like lemon curd, just without the lemon.  They use a lot of egg yolks in desserts here.  The Egg Cream is made with mainly sweetened egg yolks.  The "boat" shape surrounding it tasted like puff pastry.  It was very good!  We didn't get any Pastels de Nata this time- those are very common and can be found almost anywhere here.  :)
**This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com/ **

2 comments:

Linda said...

I'd love to sample that chocolate one--is it kind of like a cupcake?

What a Dish! said...

I think it is their version of a cupcake. But Dh said it was kind of dry. ;)