Folar de Olhão

The story

Olhão, in the Algarve, gave Portugal a sweet layered folar, also called folar de folhas for its leaves of dough. Thin rounds are stacked in a deep pan with butter, sugar and cinnamon between them, and in the oven the sugar melts into a syrup that soaks the layers and sets as a hard caramel on top while the inside stays soft. The Michelin Guide lists its flavors as cinnamon, brown sugar, lemon and butter. According to one of the town's producers, the dough itself contains no eggs.

The same producer told Postal do Algarve that the folar was once made only at Easter, for family and friends. In 2019 it was named one of the 7 Maravilhas Doces de Portugal, the seven wonders of Portuguese sweets. Today it is sold year-round in shops and supermarkets, but demand jumps before Palm Sunday, which falls on March 21, 2027, and that producer's factory doubles both its daily output and its staff for Easter. In 2014 the Kubidoce pastry shop planned a 100-meter folar beside the town's parish church, handed out for a coin donated to a charity for mothers and children at risk.

Bake it on Holy Saturday and serve it warm with coffee on Easter morning; wrapped in paper, it also travels well as a hostess gift.