The Portuguese Rooster loves Coscorões!

Desserts and sweets cannot be missing from a Portuguese table when it's Christmas. The list is long, but the Portuguese Rooster loves Bolo Rei, similar to brioche cake, not too sweet, covered with nuts and candied fruit, which are also mixed inside.) aletria, (Portuguese Sweet Pasta dessert, sugar, noodles, eggs, butter, cinnamon...), and coscorões (a fried pastry, sugar, eggs, brandy, flour, orange zest ). In addition to being a national symbol, he is also a good cook! The bolo-rei recipe was imported from another country, France, it’s the king of the Portuguese Christmas sweet table. It’s there before, during, and after Christmas and New Year, and certainly a must for Dia de Reis (Epiphany) on January 6. The table is turning out to be very pretty, don't you think? 

Coscorões are fried dough often referred to as Angel Wings. They can be square, round or triangular but they are part of our tradition and are rarely missing from a Portuguese Christmas table. It is thought that this sweet is of Moorish origin, having been introduced to Europe by the Crusaders. Because it had some resistance to time, it was expressly made for long journeys, especially in the Middle Ages. Most likely the first recipes would not have sugar. It could be drizzled with honey or salt. Nowadays it is a typical Christmas sweet from many regions of the country, such as Alentejo, Beira Baixa, and Trás-os-montes. Ingredients may vary a little. Sometimes I read about the old or traditional recipes of coscorões. When we see that a recipe is old, it almost always means that coscorões are made using baker's yeast. Modern recipes use self-rising flour and the dough is no longer left to rise. Knowing the origin of Christmas sweets will help you understand why they are a regular presence at the Christmas table but sometimes it is difficult to know the history of a sweet or dish, as well as its origin. All over the internet, it is claimed that the origin of sweets is this or that place.

 

Ingredients: 

- 500 g of flour without wheat 

- 50 ml of water

- 3 eggs 

- 75 ml of orange juice

- 25 g of baker's yeast ( 8-10 g of dry yeast)

- 50 g of sugar

- 3 soup spoons of spirits (aguardente)

- orange zest

- 50 g of melted butter 

- 1 coffee spoon of salt

- frying oil 

- 4 soup spoons of sugar for sprinkling

 - 1 coffee spoon of cinnamon powder for sprinkling

Preparation mode: 

1. Place the flour, the sugar, and the salt in a bowl. Mix it!

2. Add the spirits, the water, the orange zest, and the juice in the middle.

3.  Break the eggs inside another bowl, mix them and add them to the bowl.

4. In a small bowl put the water and heat it a bit in the microwave or stove. Then put the yeast in it and mix so it can dissolve. Instead of water, you can use milk. Put this mix in the first large bowl.

Mix everything together with an electric device - for 5 minutes - or manually.

5. Sprinkle the table with flour and remove the dough from the bowl and lay it on the table. Sprinkle with some more flour and knead the dough. You can add more flour to get the ideal consistency. The dough will be ready when it does not glue to the hands. So knead it well until it comes off of your hands.

6. Put some flour in a new bowl and form a dough into a ball. Sprinkle with flour and cover with kitchen plastic. Put a cloth around it. Let it rest for an hour. It will double its volume.

7. Put the oil to heat in a frying pan or in a pot, because it has more depth

8. Sprinkle the table with flour and remove the air from the dough kneading it a bit with your hands

9. Divide the dough in two. This way it will be easier to roll out small portions of the dough with a rolling pin. Now cut a long rectangle. Make two longitudinal cuts in it. Repeat! Use a dough cutter. (The roll pin must be well sprinkled with flour.

10. Fry it when the oil is hot. The oil will be ready when you drop a small sphere of dough in it and bubbles form. Fry the coscorão on now side and then on the other. You can fry one or two at the same time depending on the size of your frying pan.

11. Mix sugar and cinnamon in a recipient and then plunge the coscorões one by one in it. Put it in a plate and take it to the table. 

Bom apetite!

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Thank you!