Jésuitas Portuguese Pastry
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
- 100g/3.5ozs. sugar
- 50ml/1.7flozs. water
- 2 egg yolks (tip: try to make sure that there aren't any egg whites in this)
- 75g/2.7ozs. almond meal
- 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon or orange zest
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
- 3 sheets butter puff pastry (550g/20ozs.), defrosted in the fridge
- Egg wash and 1/4 cup flaked almonds
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 220C/440F and line two baking trays with parchment. Bring the sugar and water to a boil and boil for a minute until sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and whisk in the egg yolks off the heat. Place back on the heat on a low heat to cook through for 10 minutes. Add almond meal, citrus zest and cinnamon and allow to cool.
Step 2 - Take each square of pastry and fold it in half creating a double layered rectangle. Cut out even sized triangles out of the pastry-I used a ruler just because you do want them to be the same size. Repeat with the rest of the pastry. Take half of the triangles and spread with the almond filling leaving a 1cm/half an inch border.
Step 3 - Take the egg wash and brush around the edges. I find it a bit helpful to roll out the other triangle halves a bit so that they fit over the bump in filling so I roll them out slightly. Press down gently to seal and then brush the tops with eggwash and scatter almonds. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Sprinkle jésuitas with icing sugar and serve warm.