If you don’t know already I would say Sweet Angel Hair Pudding and Rabanadas are probably my Christmas desserts, every single year I make them and try new things, but I always end up experimenting with another Aletria Doce recipe and another batch of Rabanadas. It has to be done! ;D
This is one of my favorite variations of this traditional Portuguese Christmas classic, the Aletria Doce or Sweet Angel Hair Pudding. This variation creates a much more dense and thick pudding that you can actually slice into pieces, it’s still the same incredible flavor, it just changes the texture completely. It’s delicious and a nice alternative to the richer, more traditional Christmas sweets you find all over Portugal. For me, Aletria is one of those rare Christmas desserts that absolutely needs to be on the Christmas table because of its less sweet and more plain flavour, if only to cut through all the sweetness of every other dessert out there.
Either way, an Aletria rarely turns out bad, it might come out softer or firmer, but it’s always yummy! However, I think the secret to a good firm aletria or a sliceable one is simply a bit of patience. When you add the egg mixture, you need to let it cook well! I’m not saying go crazy and leave it for 20 more minutes, but you do need to give it some time for the eggs to cook completely and for all the starch from the pasta to spread through the liquid and for some of that liquid to evaporate a bit more. That combination is what creates a Sliceable Aletria Doce (notice in the photos how the Aletria is pulling away from the serving dish, that shows it’s hehehe perfect!). So let’s get to the recipe!
Portuguese Christmas Sweet Angel Hair Pudding Cake
Ingredients
- Angel Hair Pasta – 200g (Vermicelli-style pasta)
- Milk – 100ml
- Egg Yolks – 4
- Water – 900ml
- Sugar – 200g
- Butter – 1 Tablespoon (Heaped)
- Lemon – 1 Peel
- Cinnamon – 1 Stick
- Cinnamon – For Sprinkling
- Salt – A Pinch
Directions
- Place the water, sugar, butter, lemon peel, cinnamon stick, and a pinch of salt in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, bringing to a boil for the last 2 or 3 minutes so that the water absorbs all the flavors.
- Add the vermicelli to the saucepan, breaking it up with your hands as you add it to the water (this is important, otherwise you risk having hard lumps of pasta in your Aletria). Stir well and cook for another 10 minutes, until the vermicelli is cooked.
- After 10 minutes, taste the Aletria to make sure it is cooked. If it is not, and you don’t have any liquid left, add a little more hot water. The pasta must be cooked before moving on to the next step, and you can’t have much liquid left as well.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the milk. Add spoonfuls of the hot liquid (it’s mostly liquid with pasta, that’s ok) from cooking of the aletria to the egg yolks, stirring constantly. This step is important to gradually increase the temperature of the egg yolks, preventing them from curdling.
- When the egg yolks are thoroughly heated, pour the mixture back into the pan with the vermicelli. Pour in a thin stream, stirring constantly, and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, until the mixture is creamy and thick. As mentioned above, you must be patient, you want the final mixture to be very dense so that it will set perfectly when cold.
- Transfer the sweet vermicelli to a serving dish or Pyrex dish, let it cool completely, and then refrigerate for at least 12 hours.
- When it’s time to serve, remove from the refrigerator and sprinkle generously with ground cinnamon. I personally like the diamond pattern, but you can do it however you like, or serve it plain and let each person sprinkle cinnamon to their liking. Enjoy!
In Portugal the kind of pasta used in this sweet is called “Aletria” so “Aletria Doce”, its just sweet aletria, and altought its pretty much vermicelli pasta, its one of those pastas that sometimes its not available all year round, only starts showing up on Supermarkets around October/November for Christmas! 😀
The secret to getting that perfect sliceable texture is really don’t rush the cooking process after adding the eggs. You want to see the mixture thicken considerably and pull away slightly from the sides of the pan (like in the photos!). If you cut the cooking time short, it’ll be softer and more like a traditional pudding consistency.
Breaking up the angel hair pasta with your hands as you add it to the pot is crucial. If you don’t, the strands can clump together and you’ll end up with hard, undercooked chunks in your dessert. Nobody wants that!
Also don’t skip the gradual heating step when adding the yolk mixture. If you pour cold eggs directly into hot liquid, they’ll scramble and you’ll have a lumpy disaster instead of a smooth, creamy dessert.
This dessert is served cold, straight from the fridge. The 12-hour rest time isn’t just a suggestion, it’s what allows the dessert to firm up properly so you can slice it with a knife.
Keep refrigerated and consume within 2-3 days. If the surface dries out a bit, just dust with more cinnamon before serving!
This recipe for Portuguese Christmas Sweet Angel Hair Pudding Cake was originally created on BakeAfter.com. Esta receita de Aletria Doce de Natal foi publicada em português no Iguaria.com.
Nutrition
Per Serving: 160 calories; 3.2 g fat; 29 g carbohydrates; 3 g protein.Did you try this recipe?
Let me know how it turned out for you! Have you tried this dessert? Do you like it more creamy or like this more thick and sliceable? Leave a comment below ;D
