Authentic Pastel de Santa Clara Recipe Coimbra, Portugal

A dough made with flour, butter, eggs, water, and sugar is stretched until paper-thin, then cut into squares and a dollop of the filling made with sugar syrup, ground almonds, and egg yolks is put onto each. The circles are then folded in half, resembling half-moons, and baked until golden. While still hot, the pastries should be rolled in powdered sugar and can then be served. However, pastel de Santa Clara cookies can have other shapes as well. One popular way of making them is to put circles of dough in a cupcake thin, add the filling, and then top it with another piece of dough, or leave them open-faced. In Brazil, on the other hand, it is more common to see these pastries shaped like rectangles.