The Pão de Rala recipe is another typical Alentejo sweet, which is believed to have first appeared in nunneries in the Alentejo.

It’s another recipe that uses a lot of eggs, because that’s how they used to be used in the past.

The recipe:

Ingredients:

• 900gr Sugar
• 250 grams ground shelled almonds
• 250gr Ground almonds in shell
• 19 yolks
• 1 Tbsp milk
• 5 dl Water
• Flour for sprinkling
• 300gr Egg yolks
• 1 lemon peel

Preparation:

Put 2 liters of water and 500 grams of sugar in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and boil for 15 minutes.

Add the ground almonds, peeled and unpeeled, stir well and leave to simmer for another 3 minutes.

Separately, beat 6 egg yolks in a bowl and gradually add the almond mixture, beating constantly. Add everything back to the pan and bring to the boil, stirring constantly until it thickens. At the end, pour into a bowl and leave to cool.

Start preparing the filling now. Put 400 grams of sugar in a saucepan, add 3 litres of water and the lemon rind and bring to the boil until the sugar dissolves.

Beat the 12 egg yolks in a bowl, add the sugar syrup and stir well. Pour back into the pan and bring to the boil, stirring constantly until it thickens. Remove from the heat, pass through a sieve, leave to cool, add the egg yolks, fold in and set aside.

Roll out the initial dough into a circle on a worktop sprinkled with flour. Place the filling in the center, fold the edges up and brush with egg yolk mixed with a spoonful of milk.

Roll out the rest of the dough at the end, place it on top of the previous one, sprinkle with flour, press down on the sides to make it stick and smooth it out until it’s even.

Place on a baking tray dusted with flour and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 40 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven, leave to cool and serve decorated to your liking.