Granadas

Description: Cakes with 9 cm in length, 4 cm in width and 2,5 cm in height and with 50 g of weight. Made from flour, margarine, eggs, sugar, pine nuts and coconut.

Region: Alentejo.

Other denominations: Granadas de Vendas Novas.

Particularity: Garnet-shaped cakes, with a lower layer of dough and sweet filling made from products from the region. Individually pack-aged inside boxes with 6 units, accompanied by a text in verse (four quatrains) that makes the apology of the cakes.

History: Vendas Novas is located in a region where stone pines abound and it is therefore not surprising that the typical sweet in-cludes pine nuts in its recipe. It is an important military center, where several barracks are located. This is probably where the idea of the name Granadas, with which the regional cake was baptized, comes from.

Use: As a treat, at any time of the day.

Know-how: The secret of the recipe lies in the possession of the pas-try shop that, decades ago, launched this cake. It is known, however, that a thin dough is made with which the shapes of the Garnets are lined, which are then filled with a pine nut-based jam.

Source: Produtos Tradicionais Portugueses, Lisboa, DGDR, 2001