Sunday 6 May 2012

Portuguese yolk-almond pudding

Portuguese: saudade
Galician: morriña
Bosnian: sevdah
Armenian: կարոտ
Arabic: وجد
Greek: λαχτάρα
Albanian: mall
Hebrew: ערגה
Finnish: kaiho

This time, for the first time, no Polish therm. I am sure there would be one and I have someting on the tip of my tongue but didn't find it yet. But as far as I know languages, there are several words which may mean something similar. Thus, saudade wouldn't be untranslatable. To pine for somebody that you miss deeply, to wish you could be there or have it again, that nostalgic yearning for something that may no longer exist, melancholic, fatalist overtone that the object of longing may never return is known for people in the whole universe, me included. It was so overwhelming, my saudade, that I had to prepare something Portuguese to relief myself. I chose something ancient, gluten-free and even quite healthy: toucinho do céu. The whole doçaria conventual is fascinating: yolks, almonds, sugar, cinnamon, not much more, and the list of the desserts is infinite. This sweet literally means "lard from heaven" and the fact is that in the past lard was added to this recipe. I was following this method. Recommendable. I'd add doce de gila/chila, it should be even tastier with this ingredient, but in Poland you can't. Not that I won't buy doce de gila anywhere, I'd do it on my own but I never found gila so far :( I should try with a differrent type of pumpkin. Next time.

10 egg yolks
250 gr sugar (I used muscovado)
150 ml water
125 gr almonds (I gave more, about 200 gr)
1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
1 teaspoon cederat (or lemon) zest
icing sugar


1. Boil sugar with water for a while to the point just before caramelizing (should be golden). Cool down a bit.

2. Peel, toast and grind almonds

3. Beat egg yolks, gradually add almond flour, cinnamon, fruit zest and sugar syrup.

4. Spread your mold / pyrex with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Pour the mass.

5. Bake in the oven. Mine took 45 minutes in 180C oven. Every oven is differrent so just observe your toucinho, it can't be raw inside. When ready, sprinkle with icing sugar. Boy, was it delicious. But saudade is not gone :(



ps. tocino de cielo is similar only by its name. This Spanish dessert contains no almonds nor gila. Just yolks and sugar. I'll make it some other longing day, for sure.

No comments: