Seia Chestnut Burr
Also known as: Seia Chestnut Burr · Chestnut Hedgehog Pastry
A crisp handmade filo flower with an intense chestnut-paste heart.
- Origin
- Seia · Lapa dos Dinheiros · Serra da Estrela
- Region
- Seia · Lapa dos Dinheiros
- Season
- Year-round · especially autumn
Ouriço da Castanha is a small open pastry served in a brown paper cup. Many wafer-thin sheets of filo, toasted gold, lift into irregular points around the centre like the spikes of a chestnut burr. Inside sits a compact, pale chestnut paste with a light dusting of sugar.
Contrast defines the sweet: filo shatters into delicate crisp flakes, while the chestnut paste is dense, soft and earthy. Its form should look handmade and asymmetric, neither a geometric rose nor a closed tartlet.
- chestnuts
- filo pastry
- sugar
- fennel seeds
- powdered sugar
Very crisp outside and dense-soft at the centre, with deep chestnut flavour and an aromatic fennel note.
This entry covers Pastelaria Zé Manel's creation. Other hedgehog-shaped or chestnut sweets exist elsewhere, but use different pastries and have different histories.
At Pastelaria Zé Manel in Seia and during Lapa dos Dinheiros' Chestnut Festival; the bakery makes it throughout the year.
Black tea, espresso or a mountain chestnut liqueur.
Pastelaria Zé Manel in Seia created Ouriço da Castanha in 2017 for the Chestnut Festival at Lapa dos Dinheiros. The bakery makes both the filo and chestnut paste itself. Its shape turns the image of a chestnut within its spiny burr into a pastry.
Success at the festival led to year-round production. In 2019 it became one of Guarda district's seven representatives in the national Seven Wonders of Portuguese Sweets vote. Food guides continue to identify it as the bakery's specialty and a celebration of Serra da Estrela chestnuts.
Sources: noponto.pt · guiarepsol.com · correiodaguarda.blogs.sapo.pt · caruspinus.pt
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