Alféloa
Also known as: alfeloa
Sugar and molasses pulled by hand until they lighten.
- Origin
- An Arab-rooted pulled-sugar candy, historically tied to Madeira and to sugarcane molasses
- Region
- Trás-os-Montes
- Season
- Year-round
Alféloa is, first of all, a mass of sugar or molasses boiled to a high stage and then pulled by hand, over and over, until it shifts from translucent brown to a lighter, opaque tone. From that mass comes a rustic hard candy, broken into irregular shards, as well as moulded figures, as was done in convent confectionery.
It belongs to the family of pulled sweets, a close cousin of alfenim: both are born of the same gesture of working hot sugar until it hardens and lightens. It needs no compulsory mould — the strength of the arms and the cooling of the mass give it its form.
- Sugar
- Molasses or sugarcane honey
- Water
- Lemon juice (optional)
- Oil or butter for greasing the hands
Hard and brittle, yet softening in the mouth until it turns chewy; the flavour is caramelised sugar with the depth of molasses, sweet without being cloying, sometimes with a faint edge on the finish.
Some make it with sugar alone, paler and more neutral; others use molasses or sugarcane honey, darker and deeper in flavour. In some hands it is drawn into threads and coiled or moulded into figures; in others it sets in slabs that are then snapped apart. It may be scented with lemon, cinnamon or fennel.
It is a hard sweet to find for sale these days. Look for it at traditional and regional confectioners, especially in Madeira, where the sugarcane-molasses tradition is still alive, and at fairs and markets of old-time products. The genuine article is hand-pulled and sold by weight or in pieces, not in factory wrappers.
It calls for a strong coffee or a hot tea; the bolder pair it with a glass of aguardente or of Madeira wine.
The name alféloa comes from Arabic (al-helua, "the sweet", "the sugared"), an inheritance of the long Islamic presence in the Peninsula and of the same tradition of worked sugars and molasses that also gave us alfenim. Dictionaries define alféloa as a mass of sugar or molasses at a set point, from which confectionery objects are made, or the hard candy made from that mass.
Its best-documented roots are in Madeira, the island of sugar from the 15th century onward, where it was one of the sugarcane-molasses sweets made in convents such as Santa Clara; from Madeira it also reached Brazil. It has no known author and no fixed date: it is folk and convent knowledge, passed from hands to hands.
Sources: lexico.pt · pt.wiktionary.org · dicio.com.br · museudoacucar.com.br · pt.wikipedia.org