Portugal - Desserts are Seriously Sweet

Pastel de feijao was a fantastic dessert made with white bean

Outside of Portugal, the country is best known for its pastel de nata, the flaky egg tart with a caramelised egg custard. We tried two or three of them in different bakeries and they weren't exceptionally good. 

They were made for gullible tourists like us, or had been sitting around on the pastry showcase for a while and losing their crispiness by the hour.

Typical croissant found in many cafes

Nevertheless, during our one-week stay in Porto and the Douro Valley, we sampled a few other treats. And yes, the Portuguese love their sweets. A lot of them look a bright yellow or orange, thanks to the amount of eggs in the desserts.

In cafes, the croissants are more brioche than layers of flakiness like French ones which was pretty disappointing, and are on the sweet side. 

Another somewhat bready dessert is bolo rei or king cake, which looks like a Portuguese version of Christmas cake that is eaten year-round and sold in pastry shops. It isn't dense like the English one filled with dried fruit and rum, but is round and made in a kind of bundt cake mould, with fruits and nuts inside, and then topped with copious amounts of powdered icing sugar.

However, we did try one nice tart called pastel de feijao, or white bean tart. We were surprised to hear about the beans in this dessert, and the man behind the pastry counter at Petulia assured us it was a local dessert we had to try.

Bolo rei, or king cake at Petulia

The one we had had several layers of flaky pastry, and inside was a filling of ground almonds and white bean puree. You can't taste the bean at all, which tempers the sweetness, and is strong textural contrast to the pastry.

We really enjoyed this tart, which helped counter our belief that all desserts in Portugal were super sweet!