Redondo Escarapiada
Also known as: Redondo Escarapiada · Alentejo Bread-Dough Cake
The rustic cake that sweetens bread dough with lard, eggs, cinnamon and lemon.
- Origin
- Redondo · Central Alentejo
- Region
- Redondo · Central Alentejo
- Season
- Year-round; traditionally tied to baking day
Escarapiada de Redondo is an Alentejo dry cake baked in a tray and cut into thick squares. It begins with bread dough set aside on baking day, enriched with sugar, lard and eggs and scented with cinnamon and lemon zest. Before entering the oven it receives cinnamon sugar, which forms a dark, irregular, lightly crisp crust.
Inside it retains the compact texture of sweet bread: firmer and grainier than a creamed cake, yet moist from fat and sugar. This is thrift-minded oven confectionery, made to accompany coffee, keep for several days and make full use of the heat of a bread bake.
- bread dough
- sugar
- lard
- eggs
- cinnamon
- lemon zest
Rustic sweetness of bread, cinnamon and toasted sugar, with citrus perfume, a compact crumb and a lightly crackling caramelised crust.
Proportions and form vary between households. There are accounts of escarapiadas with pork cracklings and namesakes in other regions, including Condeixa and Porto Santo; they are not automatically the same sweet. The version documented here is Redondo and Central Alentejo's square, sweet bread-dough cake with sugar and cinnamon.
At bakeries, fairs and gastronomic events in Redondo. The municipality promotes local products through Redondo Há Mesa, and Redondo Escarapiada appeared in a regional tasting presented at FITUR in 2025.
Milky coffee, black tea or a small glass of Redondo red wine.
Redondo Municipal Council's official guide highlights escarapiadas among the local sweets, and the town entered its Escarapiada in the 2019 Seven Wonders of Portuguese Sweets nominees. The tradition is not confined to one municipality: Vidigueira's oral-heritage archive records bakers making escarapiadas among their bread derivatives, while a local project explains how such dry cakes made full use of each oven firing.
A published formula for the nearby Reguengos de Monsaraz version confirms that bread-day logic, but should not be treated as a single official Redondo recipe. The name also exists elsewhere in Portugal for different foods; this page covers Central Alentejo's sweet bread-dough version.
Sources: cm-redondo.pt · amesacomaziza.com · portal.arquivos.pt · paodavidigueira.wordpress.com · radioelvas.com · gazetarural.com
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