Convent of Hope Bacon Pastries
Golden convent pastries filled with bacon, almond, yolks and cinnamon.
- Origin
- Beja · Alentejo
- Place
- Beja
- Region
- The Alentejo
- Category
- Convent Sweets
- Season
- Year-round
- Evidence
- Well documented
Pastéis de Toucinho do Convento da Esperança are small circular cases of extremely thin pastry, about 6 centimetres wide and 3 centimetres high. Their filling combines ground fresh bacon fat, almonds, yolks, sugar and cinnamon, sealed under another pastry disc and baked.
The dough is rolled and folded repeatedly like puff pastry. For the filling, soaked minced bacon fat boils in syrup, is sieved and thickened with almond and yolks. The result is golden, dense and sweet, with the fat fully integrated rather than tasting like a savoury dish.
- wheat flour
- egg yolk
- butter
- fresh bacon fat
- almonds
- egg yolks
- sugar
- cinnamon
Very rich and sweet, with almond, yolk and cinnamon, thin pastry and a mellow richness from the bacon fat.
Depending on the maker, the pastry may look open or fully covered; bacon-and-almond filling remains its essence.
At convent-sweet shops, markets and pastry shops in Beja and the Lower Alentejo.
Espresso, black tea or an Alentejo fortified wine.
The name and the Alentejo Gastronomic Charter connect the recipe to Beja's vanished Convent of Hope, founded in 1541. DGADR nevertheless records alternative traditions attributing it to the Convent of Saint John the Penitent or the Maltesinhas of Estremoz. Its Alentejo convent context is consistent across sources, but the exact religious house remains disputed.
Well documented
Identity supported by institutional, specialist or corroborating sources.
- tradicional.dgadr.gov.pt/pt/cat/doces-e-produtos-de-pastelaria/208-pasteis-de-toucinho-do-convento-da-esperanca (opens in a new tab)
- confrariagastronomicadoalentejo.pt/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/carta-gastronomica-do-alentejo.pdf (opens in a new tab)
- lifecooler.com/artigo/atividades/pastis-de-toucinho-do-convento-da-esperana-de-beja/329258 (opens in a new tab)
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