Ear-Shaped Biscuits
Santa Maria's triangular enriched biscuits, clipped at the tips like little ears.
- Origin
- Santa Maria Island · Azores
- Region
- Santa Maria Island
- Season
- Year-round
Biscoitos de Orelha are a Santa Maria Island speciality shaped by hand into triangles and clipped at the corners—the detail that gives them their ear-like name. Their raised dough combines wheat flour, sugar, eggs, lard and butter before baking in a moderate oven.
The result sits between biscuit and small cake: golden, firm outside and enriched by the two fats, with an immediately recognisable silhouette.
- wheat flour
- sugar
- eggs
- lard
- butter
- yeast
Gently sweet, buttery and rich, with a firm exterior and more tender crumb.
Triangle size and the depth of the corner cuts vary with the baker shaping them.
On Santa Maria Island, in grocers, pastry shops and local craft or food stores.
Coffee, tea or milk.
The tradition belongs to the women of Santa Maria and to household baking passed between generations. Today the biscuits remain available year-round in food shops and local craft outlets across the island.
Sources: tradicional.dgadr.gov.pt
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