Peniche Esses
Also known as: Esses · Almond esses
An almond S that melts slowly, crisp-shelled with a tender heart.
- Origin
- 20th century · Peniche, home kitchens and local pastry shops
- Region
- Peniche
- Season
- Year-round
Esses de Peniche are small almond sweets moulded in the shape of the letter that gives them their name. They are made from stiffly beaten egg whites folded together with fine ground almond, sugar and a little butter, bound by a modest measure of flour. The dough rests, is dusted with icing sugar, and is rolled by hand into small S-shapes before going into the oven.
On the plate they appear golden and unassuming, with a lightly crackled surface and a pale, moist interior. They are bitten through a gently crisp shell that immediately yields to a soft, fragrant crumb that dissolves slowly in the mouth.
They are served at room temperature, beside a coffee or a cup of tea, and form part of the almond confectionery that is the signature of Peniche, alongside the amigos and the penichenses.
- Ground almonds
- Egg whites
- Sugar
- Butter
- Flour
- Icing sugar
Almond leads — sweet without cloying — beneath a thin, crisp shell that gives way to a soft, moist centre that dissolves slowly on the tongue.
Recipes vary from shop to shop in the balance of almond and sugar; some home versions add lemon zest to scent the dough.
Look for them in the pastry shops and cafés of Peniche, sold alongside the amigos and penichenses; ask for the house almond sweets.
A strong coffee or a cup of tea; they also sit well beside a glass of moscatel or sweet wine to close a meal.
The esses are a domestic sweet, recorded in Peniche chiefly over the course of the twentieth century. They are said to have begun in the hands of certain local women, before entering the display cases of the town's pastry shops, among them the old Pastelaria Resgate, which is also associated with the creation of the penichenses.
The dominance of almond in Peniche's confectionery has a curious explanation: it is thought to have arrived with the Algarve workers drawn to the town's fish-canning factories, who brought with them the tradition of almond sweets. From that inheritance grew a family of almond confections that, with time, came to identify Peniche.
Sources: cm-peniche.pt · virgiliogomes.com · virgiliogomes.com
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