Arouca Melindres
Also known as: Arouca Melindres
Small fluffy egg cakes covered all over with white sugar glaze.
- Origin
- Arouca · Aveiro district
- Region
- Arouca
- Season
- Year-round; traditional at Christmas, Easter and Saint Mafalda's feast
Melindres de Arouca are circular cakes roughly 5 centimetres wide and 1 centimetre thick, made simply with eggs, sugar and flour. Their interior is golden and fluffy; once cool, the outside is coated with a white glaze of egg white and sugar.
The batter begins with yolks beaten at length with sugar, then flour and whipped whites. Traditionally baked in a wood-fired oven, they are light and low, with an irregular white coating that leaves small toasted patches visible.
- eggs
- sugar
- wheat flour
- egg whites and sugar for the glaze
Light and sweet, with a fluffy egg crumb and thin sugary glaze.
Thickness and glaze vary slightly; authentic melindres remain small, circular and white-glazed.
At traditional and convent-sweet shops in Arouca, often sold in 250- or 500-gram packs.
Espresso, tea or white Port.
This Arouca recipe passed orally from family to family. Melindres were associated with Christmas, Easter and the feast of Queen Saint Mafalda, abbess of the former Arouca convent; their local reputation eventually made them a year-round sweet.
Sources: tradicional.dgadr.gov.pt
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