Azorean Pineapple Malamanhado
Also known as: Azorean Pineapple King Cake · Malamanhado Pineapple Bolo-Rei
São Miguel's king cake: deliberately rough outside and rich with pineapple within.
- Origin
- Colmeia Confeitaria · Ponta Delgada · São Miguel Island
- Region
- Ponta Delgada · São Miguel Island
- Season
- Christmas · November to January
Malamanhado de Ananás is Colmeia Confeitaria's São Miguel interpretation of bolo-rei. It starts with rich yeasted dough containing eggs, raisins, nuts and candied fruit, but replaces the regular crown with a deliberately irregular, 'poorly arranged' construction—the meaning behind mal-amanhado. Its centre holds moist Azorean pineapple preserve and doce de ovos egg custard.
That contrast defines it: a golden, craggy fruit-studded exterior, light yellow crumb and a dense fruity, creamy core. It is neither an ordinary pineapple upside-down cake nor merely bolo-rei decorated with fruit; pineapple preserve and yolk custard form a distinct centre inside the festive dough.
- wheat flour
- eggs
- sugar
- yeast
- Azorean pineapple
- doce de ovos egg custard
- nuts
- raisins
- candied fruit
Buttery fruit bread and toasted nuts surrounding a sweet-tart pineapple heart rounded by silky egg-yolk custard.
Scale ranges from a family cake to giant event pieces. The full formula belongs to Colmeia; public sources confirm the bolo-rei base and pineapple-preserve and egg-custard centre but do not publish the commercial proportions.
At Colmeia Avenida in Ponta Delgada, chiefly from November through January. In some years it is also distributed through Azorean-speciality shops on mainland Portugal.
Azorean black tea, coffee or a small glass of pineapple liqueur.
According to Colmeia, its Pineapple Bolo-Rei first appeared in 2014 after experiments intended to give an Azorean expression to a cake without an established island tradition. The team led by pastry chef Lucília Sousa joined classic bolo-rei dough to São Miguel's 'king of fruits' and doce de ovos. It became a seasonal product, normally available from November to January, and was nominated as Malamanhado in the Festive Sweets category of Portugal's Seven Wonders of Sweets in 2019. That year Colmeia made a 20-metre version for Ponta Delgada using 45 kilograms of flour, 360 eggs, 50 kilograms of pineapple and 40 kilograms of nuts, raisins and candied fruit.
Sources: acorianooriental.pt · solmaravenidacenter.com · gazetarural.com · randomtrip.pt
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