Portuguese Christmas cake recipes not to be missed this season

Some are better known, some less; some more common, others more specific. But all these Portuguese Christmas cake recipes end up having a common denominator: they are absolutely delicious!

They will even help make your christmas table sweeter, just like this season should be.

Azores Christmas cake

Ingredients

• 1 kg unbleached wheat flour
• 1kg sugar
• 6 eggs
• 250gr butter
• 2 c. tea baking powder
• 1 cup cane honey
• 1 cup jam (flavor of choice)
• 250gr candied fruit
• 250gr dried fruit (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, prunes, raisins, sultanas, dried figs)
• 1 glass of port wine
• cinnamon powder qb🇧🇷
• Clove qb🇧🇷
• nutmeg qb🇧🇷

preparation method

• Take advantage of the day before to chop the fruit very finely.
• Coat well in flour with 1 teaspoon of yeast and set aside.
• The next day, beat the sugar with the whole eggs, spices and butter (which should be soft).
• Add the flour, molasses, sweets and spirits.
• Beat well until you leave the dough soft – not too soft, not too hard.
• Add the fruit to the mixture and mix well with your hands.
• Place in the oven in a greased and floured form, for about 1 hour and a half, at about 160º.

King Cake

Ingredients

• 450gr type 65 flour
• 70gr sugar
• 25gr baker’s yeast
• 20g orange juice
• 40gr port wine
• 130gr milk
• 70gr butter
• 350gr candied fruit or dried fruit
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 egg yolk for brushing
• Peel of 1 orange
• Peel of 1 lemon
• 1 pinch of salt

preparation method

• With the help of a robot, pulverize the sugar, orange and lemon peels.
• Add the milk and butter to this mixture and stir well for about 8 minutes.
• Add the egg yolks, yeast, orange juice and wine. Mix everything.
• While stirring, add the flour and a pinch of salt.
• Knead the mixture by hand until you get an elastic dough that does not stick to your hands.
• Let the dough rest until it doubles in volume. When that happens, knead it again some more.
• Always kneading, add 250gr of candied fruit.
• On a tray greased with butter and sprinkled with flour, place the dough in a circular shape with a hole, brush the dough with egg yolk and decorate to taste with the remaining candied fruits or dried fruits.
• Let the dough rest a little until it increases in volume and bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.

Christmas log

Ingredients

• 300gr of sugar
• 200g almond powder
• 50gr of flour
• 10 eggs
• margarine for greasing
• Vegetal paper
• Ingredients for the cream
• 400g chocolate bar
• 50gr of sugar
• 2dl of cream
• 0.5dl of milk
• 1 c. butter soup

preparation method

• Start with the cream: heat a pan with the sugar, milk and cream, stirring occasionally until it boils. Remove from the heat, add the previously chopped chocolate and the butter and stir until the chocolate is completely dissolved. Reserve.
• Line two trays with parchment paper and grease with margarine. Turn on the oven at 180º.
• In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff with the sugar, add the egg yolks, stir, add the sifted flour with the powdered almonds and mix carefully until there are no lumps.
• Place 1/3 of the dough on a tray and the rest on another tray.
• Place both trays in the oven, the one with less dough for approximately 12 minutes and the one with more dough for about 17 minutes or until cooked and golden.
• Remove from the oven, unmold, spread both with a little of the still warm cream so as to leave a very thin layer and roll up with the help of a cloth.
• Allow to cool, trim the larger pie and cut the smaller one.
• Lay the halves of the small pie aside to form the log, spread everything with the rest of the cream and serve decorated with Christmas decorations.