Porto...Lavadores..and Blue Tiles

Porto (pronounced por-tu in Portuguese) is one of the oldest existing European cities and recognized by The Historical Society. Relatively small (only 150 sq. miles) it boasts a population of 1.4 million people.  Beautiful despite its dense population.  Another perk to virtual travel, I suppose, avoiding the crush of all those people.

 Even the cable cars here sport the "blue tiled" theme. It is everywhere!

The city is dotted with crafts, speciality, and coffee shops filled with amazing pastries and cookies.

One of which I learned to make today.

Lavadores (la-bah-dor.s) is Portuguese for one of these

Washboard

But it is also the name of a deliciously simple Portuguese cookie.

Named this because of the ridges you press in the dough with the tines of a fork resembling ridges on a washboard.

The Recipe below makes a dozen cookies. It can be doubled.

Lavadores


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In mixing bowl combine

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup soft (but not melted) butter

Cream together.

Add

2 whole eggs.

Zest (grated peel) of 1/2 lemon.

Beat until mixed completely.

Add 2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Stir together until dough follows spoon around bowl.

Roll into 12  one inch balls and roll each ball in granulated sugar.

Place on ungreased baking sheet.

Press washboard ridges in each ball flattening it as you go.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until edges barely begin to brown. By then the house smells lovely.  (...the dough is also pretty wonderful...and one of my 12 cookies never even made it to the BAKE stage of our program...)

Cool completely before plating. 

Sprinkle with a bit of confectionery sugar if desired and garnish serving plate with a sprig of mint.

So good with hot tea or coffee.

So, I scouted around on eBay and found this to commemorate my travels to Port.

The laugh being, this is a used (pre-owned vintage) tile from Portugal.  Just one used corner tile. Leaving me to wonder if someone prised it off a wall there, much like I once prised a corner of a broken brick from the bricked streets of Savannah Georgia...just to bring a small bit home.

I sincerely hope so.

Heading out to get a small container to start my ginjinha  (tart cherry type aperitif/liqueur specific to Portugal) it will take most of the month to soak before it an be sampled. 

And have managed to find a PDF of Chancer's manuscript to begin. 

http://www.chirurgeon.org/files/Chaucer.pdf

Also want to try my hand at Pasteis de Belem this weekend.

Until then...

 
                                                                               Goodnight...