Barquinhos

These are traditional sweets from the municipality of Alfândega made with almonds and eggs. Bring the sugar, almonds, and butter to a boil with low heat. Beat the yolks, pour in the flour, and fill the cake tins previously lined with a dough made with flour, egg and butter and bake in a moderate oven. This sweet is strictly linked to another one, the Rochedos - since it only uses egg yolks and whites in its preparation.

In the following video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3zIqrJKsbc, Mrs. Raquel Pimentel tells us old stories about this sweet. Leafing through a handwritten recipe notebook she tells the story of her mother-in-law, who received this and many other conventual recipes from her cousin, a governess in a manor house in times of old.

The Barquinhos, which took their name from the proximity of the river, are associated with the remote existence of the Sanctuary of Santo Antão da Barca, which is located near Vilarchão and Parada, land from which the recipe is thought to originate. It is known that there was a boat in that place that transported people and goods from one bank of the Sabor River to the other, a fact that was the origin of the name of this Sanctuary and explains the form and designation of these sweets. The Barquinhos thus refer to memories that are lost in the time of the “last wild river” in Portugal, the Sabor River, whose crossings determined the sweets’ shape.