Easter Bread
Torre de Moncorvo
Ingredients
Wheat flour, eggs, butter, olive oil, baker's yeast, fine salt, water, sausage, and ham. /Dissolve the baker's yeast in lukewarm water, after it is dissolved, create a mound of flour and make a hole in the middle, pour the water with the yeast in there, followed by the eggs and knead everything very well. Make a hole again and add the melted butter and oil with a little salt and knead everything again very well, if necessary add a little water.
Then sprinkle it with flour and let it rest and leave it to rise for at least 1 hour in a warm place covered with a towel and blanket.
When the time necessary for the dough to rise has passed, divide the dough into 3 parts, place the first part on a baking tray greased with margarine, spread a little and place the meat on top. You can choose the meats you want, then add another part of the dough and repeat the process. After everything is ready on the trays, they stay 1 hour in a warm space to leaven a little more.
Brush the top with a beaten egg and bake in a hot oven at 200ºC. Folar should cook for about 45 minutes.
It is believed that the making of the folars has its origin in the fact that the New Christians (Jews who, at the end of the 15th century, accepted or pretended to accept the Christian religion, when they had to choose between baptism or death) had to look like they were eating pork. Thus, the filling of these folares would initially consist only of poultry, rabbit, and veal, seasoned in such a way as to resemble in taste and appearance pork, which was forbidden by the Hebrew religion. The fact is that this snack soon became a traditional delicacy of Trás-os-Montes. Consumed at any time of the day, especially during the Easter season, it was initially used as a gift from godparents to their godchildren. Bread has enormous significance in the diet of Trás-os-Montes, and even today it has a high symbolic value in the rural areas of Trás-os-Montes