Easter in Portugal. Have you ever eaten folar?

Almonds and Easter Bunny Bag 

Eggs and almonds, the Folar (a special Easter Bread (recipe at the end of the article), the Easter Bunny, the whole family together for a special lunch and for some, the Easter Sunday mass. This is how many Portuguese families celebrate Easter.Before Easter, during Lent, the Portuguese avoid eating meat during Fridays for 40 days in respect for the memory of the death of Christ, for it was on a Friday that Jesus was crucified. But on Easter Sunday as we celebrate the feast of the resurrection, the meat returns to Portuguese tables. Walking  the Portuguese Caminho of Santiago da Compostela during the Holy Week, is becoming increasingly popular among the Portuguese. This year, the Espaço Jacobeus Association has distributed 500  credentials to Portuguese pilgrims visiting the tomb of the Apostle James in Compostela.  You can see here more details about this adventure. In Portugal, Easter is celebrated up and down the Country , but it surely has a greater importance in more traditional villages.   There, people will keep their houses very tidy and clean and will be dressed up, waiting for the 'compasso', the visit of the local priest who comes to bless the home and those who live there.   In some villages, it is still customary for the priest and his acolytes to carry a cross, which all the villagers kiss, asking for a blessing.Traditionally, you will find in all homes the traditional almonds and sweets, accompanied by a glass of port wine or liquor as a touch of hospitality to the priest and his companions.  These are traditions that have unfortunately dissipated in the hectic life in the big cities.
In many villages people still celebrate Holy Week with processions of candles at night, or theatrical performances of popular events of Christ's death.

The Folar Bread

The tradition of FOLAR, the Easter Bread.

The Folar Bread is a typical  present given during Easter in Portugal. It is this bread that godparents used to give their godchildren at Easter to break the fasting period.  
The bread was also seen as a sign of affluence, during the compasso, the priest would collect the Folar from the houses he visited. . Not forgetting, of course, that being made of wheat, it represents the basic element that makes food, food!Most dictionaries flag the origin of the word 'Folar'  from the Latin "floralis".  The authors suggest the Germanic 'flado' which means 'honey cake' as the probable root for the name Folar or, as some other authors claim,  Folar comes from the French 'poularde'.   

Folar is defined as a cake-shaped dough nesting an orange-colored egg on the top.

The bread, which is also known as cake, symbolizes the nest, and the eggs, the  generation of a new life, fertility.  When you present someone with a Folar bread, you are wishing this person happiness and prosperity.  

In the Portuguese villages, the bread is a very rustic bakery product whereas in the cities, it is a product of "pastelaria" with some improvement of flavor, colour, texture and presentation. and as with everything in Portugal, when it comes to cooking, each region of the country will feature its Folar prepared in a different way.   As a guide, grandmothers would prepare them using wheat flour (well sifted), a dozen eggs per each quilo of flour, butter, yeasts, olive oil, salt.   You may use as a filling the meat of beef, lamb, chicken, sausages etc. See below one - of the many - recipe for a traditional Folar Bread.
The Folar does not require much ingenuity, just some patience (it takes about 2 ½ hours until done). You can opt for a traditional bread, or make a typical Transmontano recipe (stuffed with sausage typical of the region) or make a Catanhede recipe; the dough is like the traditional version, but the centre  has Olive Oil and the shape of the bread is slightly different.

You will need the following ingredients: 

500g flour, 

125g sugar, 

125g of butter, 

4 eggs, 

25g of baker's yeast, 

0.5 dl of milk, 

lemon zest  

salt to taste  

3-4 boiled eggs.

Then you lay hands on the dough. Sift the flour, dissolve yeast inwarm milk Baker. Place, then the flour in a bowl and combine all the ingredients in the center. Knead well until dough is smooth and homogeneous. Cover with cling film and let rise (doubling its volume).

Sift the flour, dissolve the yeast (if using biological yeast) in warm milk.  Put the flour in a bowl and combine all the ingredients in the centre. Knead well until dough is smooth and homogeneous. Cover with cling film and let rise (doubling its volume).
Cut then into pieces of 400 grams each and form a ball and leave them to rest for 30 minutes. Set some dough aside, wrapped in cling film, to form the strips that will "hold" the boiled egg - see the picture below.  Add some milk to a beaten egg and use this mixture to brush the dough.  Add the boiled eggs (whole!) in the center of the dough, pressing them down gently.

Brush and bake the dough in a preheated oven at 200 ° C.   Do not get distracted.  After 15 minutes, it is necessary to lower the oven temperature to 180 ° C.    Bake it for more 10 minutes.   It is ready!Bom apetite!




Want to read more?  Find below some nice websites on the theme: Sources: http://viadeiportoghesi.blogspot.co.uk/2008/03/pscoa-em-portugal-por-marta-sofia.html ,  http://www.dn.pt/inicio/portugal/interior.aspx?content_id=1192678 , http://praca.porto24.pt/2012/03/30/aprendemos-a-fazer-um-folar-tradicional-e-contamos-lhe-tudo/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=aprendemos-a-fazer-um-folar-tradicional-e-contamos-lhe-tudo