Monchique Honey Pudding
Also known as: Monchique Honey Pudding · Algarve Honey Pudding
A mountain pudding of eggs, honey, olive oil, lemon and cinnamon, slowly baked.
- Origin
- Monchique · Monchique Mountains · Algarve
- Region
- Monchique · Monchique Mountains
- Season
- Year-round; especially at celebrations and traditional tables
Pudim de Mel de Monchique is a compact, deeply golden baked dessert. A published local formula combines whole eggs, sugar, honey and olive oil, scented with lemon peel and cinnamon; the mixture goes into a mould greased with pork fat and bakes in a moderate oven for about an hour. Unmoulded, it is low and firm, with a honey-brown exterior and a moist, fine, dense centre. It contains no condensed milk and should not be confused with flan: its structure comes from the high proportion of eggs and sugar, while honey, olive oil and citrus give it the flavour of the Algarve mountains.
- eggs
- Monchique honey
- sugar
- olive oil
- lemon peel
- cinnamon
- pork fat for greasing
Very sweet and egg-rich, with aromatic honey, warm cinnamon, fresh lemon and a fruity olive-oil undertone; firm, moist and finely textured.
Some Monchique recipes use butter instead of olive oil, fold in whisked egg whites, and add aguardente and vanilla, serving the pudding in its baking dish. Others use a caramel-lined mould or a water bath; the version described here follows the olive-oil and cinnamon formula baked in a pork-fat-greased mould.
At traditional restaurants and food festivals in Monchique, especially places preserving mountain confectionery and the use of local honey.
Coffee, black tea or a small glass of Monchique medronho spirit.
Honey is deeply connected with household food in Monchique, a relationship recorded in local intangible-heritage documentation. The pudding appears among the traditional sweets promoted by the parish, national tourism routes and Algarve gastronomy publications, alongside bolo de tacho and other mountain desserts. A recipe published by Roteiro Gastronómico de Portugal credits its transmission to Andreza da Conceição and to José Pedro and Ana Maria do Carmo of A Charrete restaurant in Monchique. The sweet represented the municipality among the 2019 Seven Wonders of Portuguese Sweets nominees.
Sources: jf-monchique.pt · gastronomias.com · patrimoniocultural.gov.pt · visitportugal.com · ccdr-alg.pt · gazetarural.com
Pastries from here — The Algarve
Portuguese icon Aljezur Sweet-Potato Pillows
A long pillow of crisp pastry leaves wrapped around Aljezur sweet potato.
The Algarve
Portuguese icon Almond Spiky Biscuits
Bristling peaks of almond, slow-baked until they sing of bittersweet.
The Algarve
Portuguese icon Silves Almond Sweets
Colourful hand-modelled almond miniatures filled with sweet egg cream.
The Algarve
Portuguese icon Algarve Nut Sweet Bread
An upland sweet bread enriched with olive oil, spices and walnuts or almonds.
The Algarve