Portalegre Blancmange Cakes
Also known as: Portalegre Blancmange Cakes · Santa Clara Blancmange Cakes
Small white milk-and-rice-flour cakes, spoon-shaped and lightly toasted.
- Origin
- Portalegre · Convent of Santa Clara
- Place
- Portalegre · Convent of Santa Clara
- Region
- The Alentejo
- Category
- Convent Sweets
- Season
- Year-round · baptisms and festive days
- Evidence
- Well documented
Portalegre Manjar Branco appears as small, very white cakes, firm and slightly gelatinous, with a delicately toasted patch on the surface. Its mixture of milk, sugar, rice flour and corn starch is cooked until thick, cooled and shaped between two spoons into segments or oval mounds.
The pieces then go into a very hot oven to brown without losing their pale colour. They are served together on a platter and may be stacked, remaining cohesive enough to lift one at a time with the fingers.
- milk
- sugar
- rice flour
- corn starch
- water
Delicate milky sweetness, a firm gelatinous texture and a lightly toasted note.
Some older recipes include chicken breast, but the municipal recipe transmitted by the Cardoso sisters uses milk, rice flour and starch. The small toasted white form distinguishes the Portalegre version.
In Portalegre, from convent-sweet specialists and during the Conventual and Traditional Confectionery Fair. Check availability because shaping and baking require artisanal production.
Black tea, mild coffee or pennyroyal liqueur.
DGADR attributes this Manjar Branco to the Convent of Santa Clara in Portalegre and stresses that it should not be confused with the classic blancmange made with chicken breast and served by the spoon. The Portalegre version is an individual sweet associated with festive days such as baptisms.
Portalegre City Council preserves the recipe transmitted by confectioner Judite Cardoso through a training programme created to protect the Poor Clares' legacy. Its complete name also appears in QUALIFICA's national inventory.
Well documented
Identity supported by institutional, specialist or corroborating sources.
- tradicional.dgadr.gov.pt/pt/cat/doces-e-produtos-de-pastelaria/197-manjar-branco (opens in a new tab)
- cm-portalegre.pt/visitantes/turismo/gastronomia/docaria-conventual-e-tradicional/ (opens in a new tab)
- noponto.pt/manjar-branco/ (opens in a new tab)
- eubrdialogues.com/sites/default/files/acoes/documentos/049xlix_lista_de_produtos_tradicionais_portugueses_v_19_0.pdf (opens in a new tab)
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