Brisas do Liz

Description: Round and low cakes, very gelatinous and shiny.

Region: Center.

Particularity: Cakes cooked in a bain-marie and that have a consistency very similar to puddings.

History: The Liz is the river that bathes Leiria. This is a city associated with the trovas of King Lavrador (D. Diniz). The origin of Brisas do Liz seems to have been, in the seventeenth century, the Convent of Santa Ana, which belonged to the Dominican order and which owed its foundation to D. Catarina de Castro, daughter of the 2nd Duke of Bragança. There is only the oral tradition of confectioners who received the information from older confectioners. It is one of the symbols of this city, whose recipe is made of secret and almond. It seems that the recipe for the genuine ones has disappeared and that is why there are those who say that the ones that are found are not the same as the old breezes of the «Colonial».

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

Know-how: To the sugar brought to the point of a weak pearl, add the eggs and yolks mixed with the skinless, ground almonds, and beat until a fluffy and homogeneous mixture is obtained. Fill molds, previously greased with butter and passed with sugar, and place them on a tray with water, where they will bake in a moderate oven. Unmolded when cold, they are sold in beaded paper boxes, with the base facing up.

Source: Produtos Tradicionais Portugueses, Lisboa, DGDR, 2001