Travesseiro de Sintra in Lisbon

The Travesseiro is a Sintra puff-pastry pillow filled with almond-and-egg cream, developed at Casa Piriquita in the 1940s. Order it with a glass of Colares wine.

The story of Travesseiro de Sintra

Casa Piriquita opened in 1862 on Sintra's Rua das Padarias, founded by Amaro dos Santos and his wife Constancia Gomes; the founder's daughter Constancia Luisa Cunha developed the puff-pastry-and-egg-cream pillow in the 1940s and it became Sintra's defining sweet alongside the queijada, recipe held in family for five generations. Day-trippers cross town to eat them warm at the counter; you may be queueing for fifteen minutes, but the pastries come out hot, dusted in icing sugar.

How to make Travesseiro de Sintra

Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 1 sheet all-butter puff pastry, 250g
• 200ml milk
• 80g sugar
• 30g flour
• 4 egg yolks
• 100g ground almonds
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• Icing sugar to finish

Method

1. Cook milk, sugar, flour and yolks gently until thickened, stir constantly.
2. Fold in ground almonds and lemon zest off the heat, cool fully.
3. Cut puff pastry into 10cm by 15cm rectangles. Spoon filling along the centre.
4. Fold pastry over the filling, seal the edge with water, crimp.
5. Bake at 200C for 18 to 22 minutes until deeply golden.
6. Cool five minutes, dust with icing sugar, eat warm.

Editor tip. The pillow shape comes from rolling the filling tight inside the pastry, do not overfill.

The editor-picked rooms for Travesseiro de Sintra in Lisbon are still in research. Meanwhile, see the Lisbon signature-dishes index or the Lisbon food guide.