Pitos de Santa Luzia

Description: Cakes prepared with tender dough made with flour, sugar, lard, egg and salt, having 6 cm on a side, about 3 cm high. The cakes are more or less shaped like a square pyramid or washerwoman's bundle, since they are made from a square of dough whose ends are pulled to the center and upwards. The tender dough is filled with pumpkin jam and cinnamon (prepared with pumpkin and sugar, the sugar being half the weight of the pumpkin, and seasoned with cinnamon and pepper).

Region: North.

Special feature: Small bundles of dough, filled with a mixture of pumpkin, cinnamon sugar and pepper.

History: It is a recipe from the old Convent of Vila Real. Pitos are a seasonal sweet that is only made in the last three months of the year, with December 13, Santa Luzia's day, being the day of greatest commercialization, as traditionally girls buy Pitos to offer to boys, who on S. Brás day return the gift in the form of another regional sweet, the Hooks. More than a sweet, Pitos are an object of amorous seduction. Tradition says that those who pass through Vila Real should not forget the delicious sweets: the Pastéis de Toucinho, the Covilhetes and, above all, the Pitos.

Use: They are highly appreciated as a treat, being eaten at any time of the day.

Know-how: Knead the flour, eggs, lard, milk and yeast very well. Let it rise a little. Next, cook the pumpkin, drain very well, mix with sugar and add cinnamon. Roll out the dough to about 3 mm thick and cut out small squares. Inside, and in the center of the square, a pile of candy is placed. The four ends of the square are joined together to form a small bundle. They will bake in a very hot oven.

Source: Produtos Tradicionais Portugueses, Lisboa, DGDR, 2001