Viriato

Description: Sweet cake based on flour, sugar, eggs and grated coconut, about 12-15 cm, yellow in color, light coconut aroma, with soft texture.

Special characteristics: The "V" shape (from Viriato-mythical hero of Viseu) is, without a doubt, an evident uniqueness of this product, as well as the sweet bread dough combined with the filling of the mixture of eggs with coconut, these are the characteristics that distinguish this traditional cake from Viseu.

 

Region: Viseu.

 

Ingredients Used: Type 65 flour, eggs, grated coconut, sugar, margarine, salt, water, baker's yeast and improver.

 

Preparation: In a kneader place the flour, the yeast crumbled in water, the margarine, the eggs, the salt, the improver, knead everything with your hands for about 15 minutes until you get a consistent dough that will be left to rise for an hour. In a bowl, the sugar, coconut and eggs are kneaded with your hands to obtain a soft yellowish dough. In another bowl, mix eggs with a little sugar and a few tablespoons of water, forming a syrup that serves to brush the surface of the dough, where the mixture of eggs, sugar and coconut will be spread.
Pieces of the leavened dough are cut, smoothed with the rolling pin to a thickness of 0,5 cm from a surface 30 to 40 cm wide and the length can be that of the table-tendedeira. Brush the defined surface with the syrup, place a layer of the coconut dough on top. Then, about a third of the dough is folded lengthwise, the new surface is smoothed by hand, which is now covered with the remaining part.
Now brush the final surface with the syrup, cover with a thin layer of the coconut mass. The cakes are cut out in the shape of a "V", with a spatula, with the chosen size, giving a small blow to the top of the width that will define the stems of the symbolic "V".
Placed, one by one, on a tinplate tray, they will go to the oven heated to a temperature of 220/230 degrees where they will bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove them from the oven and, with a fine sieve, sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

 

Know-how: All the traditional methods that characterize the unmistakable Viriato cake have been preserved, a whole know-how, passed down from generation to generation. The dough is kneaded with your hands, to the right consistency to let it rise. The technique of folding the dough and cutting it into a "V" shape has its specificities, which only know-how allows for a good result.

 

Forms of Marketing: Pastry shops and cafes.

 

Product availability throughout the year: All year round.

 

Product history: In April 1955 the Technical Brigade of the "Fábrica Portuguesa de fermentos Holandeses, Lda." went to Viseu, to make demonstrations on how to produce a better and tastier bread, develop new products, more specifically, the manufacture of a regional sweet bread called Viriatos, in the shape of a "V". On April 24, of that same month/year, the Royal Restaurant served the bakery industrialists and guests, the first "Viriatos" still hot, made by the Technical Brigade.
Several bakeries in Viseu, e.g. Padaria Serra, Padeira Madeira, Padarias da Beira, Lda. that adopted the recipe, made thousands a day, the familiar cake that captivated the inhabitants of the city, who tasted it hot early in the morning. In the beginning, the bakers distributed the "Viriatos" early in the morning, through the streets, along with the bread. Bakers later supplied the small bakeries, cafes, and pastry shops.
Nowadays, most pastry shops make their own viriatos, following the traditional recipe or with small personal touches, such as adding cinnamon to the cream.
In 1995, Confeitaria Amaral registered the trademark "Pastel de Viri-ato" at the National Institute of Industrial Property, assuming a different recipe that instead of the usual filling of coconut dough, integrates a cream made with egg jam.

 

Representativeness in local food: Viriato is a cake much appreciated and consumed by the local community, whether for breakfast or snack, presence in festive gatherings, family or in collectives. Caixinha de Viriatos, a typical sweet, which is very pleased to be offered to friends, family.

 

Source: Photographic Document - Bolo Viriato - Credits - Municipality of Viseu | José Alfredo.

 

Bibliography: Correia, Alberto (2020). Viriatos, Uma Saborosa Invenção, Edição, Município de Viseu.