Carob Tart
Also known as: Carob and almond tart · Algarve carob cake
The Algarve's own "chocolate", born from the pods hanging on carob trees.
- Origin
- Algarve; rural Mediterranean baking with Moorish roots
- Region
- Algarve
- Season
- Year-round
The carob tart is the dessert that best captures the landscape of the Algarve hinterland: brown, dense and deeply aromatic, made from the flour of the carob tree's dried pods. Without a gram of chocolate, it fools the palate with a flavour reminiscent of toasted cocoa, but earthier, with an undertow of caramel and honey.
In its most traditional form it is a tall, moist tart, often enriched with ground almonds — the Algarve hills' other great gift. The baked batter sits somewhere between cake and pudding, with a close crumb and a surface glinting with sugar.
This is humble baking, the food of farmhouses and country fairs, which has found new life in the region's pastry shops as the banner of an Algarve that tastes of sun, sun-drying yards and the shade of trees.
- Carob flour
- Ground almonds
- Eggs
- Sugar
- Butter or oil
- Wheat flour
- Baking powder
- Orange zest or cinnamon
The first impression is of dark chocolate, but it quickly reveals itself as something else: sweeter and rounder, with caramel, nutty notes and a faintly earthy edge. The texture is moist and dense, almost fudgy, the almond lends a gentle grain and orange zest lifts the whole.
Some make it with carob flour alone, others load it with almond, and there is a beloved version with dried fig, another Algarve staple — the so-called "three delights" tart brings carob, almond and fig together. You will also find tall cakes rather than tarts, plus carob mousses, brigadeiros and ice creams, and modern takes with a glaze or creamy filling.
It is easy to find in the cafes and pastry shops of the Algarve hinterland — Loulé, Silves, São Brás de Alportel, Tavira — and at regional food fairs. Look for the rustic, moist-looking tarts made with local carob flour rather than cocoa in disguise.
It calls for a strong coffee or an espresso, echoing its toasted notes. To round off a meal, pair it with carob or medronho liqueur, or a glass of sweet Moscatel.
The carob tree spread across the south of the Iberian Peninsula above all during the period of Arab rule, between the 7th and 11th centuries — the very word "alfarroba" comes from the Arabic al-kharruba, "the pod". In the Algarve it found the hot, dry climate and the stony barrocal soils it needs. For centuries the pods served mainly as fodder for livestock and as a fallback food in times of famine, when their natural sweetness made them precious; carob was already being traded at Algarve fairs by 1579. From the same pod comes, by way of Greek, the word "carat": its seeds were used as a reference for weighing gold and precious stones in old markets.
The tart as we know it is relatively recent, the work of home and market kitchens that made use of a local, cheap and plentiful product, adding almonds, eggs and sugar. Today, in a country that is the world's largest producer of carob — with the Algarve concentrating almost all of the national crop — the tart has shed its image as poor man's food to stand as a regional culinary icon.
Sources: guiarural.pt · tradicional.dgadr.gov.pt · agroportal.pt · depts.washington.edu · counting-stuff.com · barlavento.pt