Alcácer do Sal Pine-Nut Cakes

Bolos de Pinhão from Alcácer do Sal are small dry confections made almost entirely from shelled Mediterranean stone-pine nuts and sugar. Despite the word bolo, they contain no cake batter: whole pine nuts cook with sugar and water until the syrup reaches the proper stage, then spoonfuls are placed as small mounds on a water-wet table. As they spread and dry very briefly, they form thin discs that the source compares to a communion wafer. They must be lifted immediately before they stick.

They are distinct from Alcácer's pinhoada. Traditional pinhoada uses honey and forms a brown slab cut into diamonds; these sweets use sugar syrup and remain as individual rounds. The Gastronomic Charter does not record edible wafer as an ingredient.