Count of Praia Pudding

Pudim Conde da Praia is not a caramel flan. It is a low, compact round sweet with dark-brown baked edges and a moist yellow-orange interior. Once cold, it is unmoulded whole and generously covered with powdered sugar; a slice reveals a dense, almost creamy body in which potato binds a remarkable quantity of egg yolk, butter and sugar syrup.

The published formula uses local potatoes, 24 yolks and one white, Azorean butter, sugar, cinnamon and lemon. Boiled potato is worked into syrup at pearl stage, the mixture returns to the heat until it parts along the pan, and only then are the eggs incorporated before baking. That laborious method helps explain its reputation as a difficult recipe held by very few hands.