Meias-Luas de Viana

Description: Pastries made from a dough prepared with wheat flour, butter, water, salt and butter for frying. The filling is made with flour, eggs, sugar and almonds. They are half-moon shaped, about 10 cm at their longest length.

Region: North.

Particularity: Fried pastries, filled with wood flour jam (cassava flour and eggs).

History: It is a conventual sweet, made and sold in the Recolhimento de Santiago. Tradition says that these sweets were made by young women collected in the convent after being abandoned, as children, by their relatives. Its sale was made through the convent's "wheel". This wheel was made up of a piece of wood that existed on certain doors of the convents and that allowed, outside, to deposit what one wanted to send inside the convent, anonymously, through the opening of the same door. Thus, the same «wheel» that was used to deposit the children, was also used for those who wanted to buy the Half-Moons. People put the money in the wheel, turned it through the proper opening and, on the other side, those collected placed the Half-Moons wrapped in very thin paper.

Use: Half-moons are a delicate and relatively expensive sweet, so they are associated with festive occasions. However, currently its confection and sale are widespread at all times of the year.

Know-how: Sift the flour in a pile on a marble stone counter. Make a hole in half and pour the butter inside. It turns on, pouring the water needed to work. Then a roll is made that is cut into slices of about 4 cm. These are then rolled out with the rolling pin so that the dough is very, very thin. Prepare the filling by bringing the sugar to a boil with a little water. Let it boil to the point of pearl and add the peeled and grated almonds. Boil a little more and add the pau flour (cassava flour), stirring constantly. Fill the pieces with thin dough, previously prepared, fold and cut into a half-moon shape, making the edges adhere well. Fry in a mixture of oil and butter in equal parts. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Source: Produtos tradicionais Portugueses, Lisboa, DGDR, 2001