Dreams

Also known as: Christmas dreams · Portuguese choux fritters

Hollow, pillowy fritters, fried golden and tumbled in sugar and cinnamon.

Origin: A traditional Portuguese Christmas fritter; historical origin not established.
Place: Nationwide
Region: Nationwide
Category: Fried Sweets
Season: Christmas
Evidence: Well documented

Sweetness

Richness

Difficulty

Sonhos are small balls of fried dough, light and hollow within, that puff in the oil until they seem almost weightless—hence their name, “dreams”. A scalded dough related to choux pastry is dropped by spoonfuls into hot oil, where the pieces roll and expand by themselves.

Golden and irregular, they are drained and rolled while warm in cinnamon sugar. Some households serve them plain; others soak them in syrup scented with Port or Madeira, lemon and cinnamon. They are a quintessential Christmas sweet, made in great quantities and eaten just as quickly.

Ingredients

Flour
Eggs
Butter
Water or milk
Salt
Lemon zest
Sugar
Cinnamon
Oil for frying

Taste & texture

Outside, a thin, crisp shell; inside, a hollow, buttery softness that almost melts away. The sugar and cinnamon bring warmth and fragrance, and when bathed in syrup they take on a port-and-citrus depth that makes them all the more comforting.

Variations

Some serve them simply dusted with sugar and cinnamon; others soak them in a syrup of port, Madeira, or sugar and lemon. They vary in filling too — a thread of custard or egg sweet in some — and in size, from tiny puffs to more generous balls.

Where to try it

Above all a home sweet, made with family at Christmastime. You will find them in traditional pastry shops and bakeries across the country, especially from December through Carnival; the Minho and the North keep the tradition most alive.

Pairs well with

They call for a strong coffee or, at the Christmas table, a glass of port or moscatel that echoes the cinnamon and citrus in the dough.

History

Tourism Portugal includes sonhos among the traditional Christmas Eve fritters alongside filhoses, coscorões, velhozes, azevias and rabanadas. The consulted recipes confirm scalded flour-and-egg dough, fried and finished with cinnamon sugar, but identify no inventor, date or originating convent.

The distinction from filhós is not absolute across Portugal because names and doughs vary regionally. This entry uses sonhos for the light spoon-dropped scalded-dough form documented by its cited recipes.

Documentary basis

Well documented

4 sources

Identity supported by institutional, specialist or corroborating sources.

How we assess sources and uncertainty →

Well documented

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