Part of the traditional Brazilian sweets, the one that the Portuguese brought and adapted to the ingredients that were around here with the recipe of “fruit, sugar, fire and only”, is no longer restricted to the domestic sphere or regional production. With the pomp they deserve, our sweets are finally taking pride of place among chefs and pastry chefs.
At the Chou restaurant, for example, chef Gabriela Barretto reserved a small piece of the dessert menu for the sweet and cheese duo. She’s had peach with goat cheese, creamy guava with Canastra cheese and orange jam with sheep’s cheese.
For the 8th of June, the house’s anniversary, Gabriela chose Portuguese chestnuts in syrup, cooked one by one after being wrapped in gauze, an old technique that prevents them from falling apart.
The sweets arrive ready-made in Chou’s kitchen. A good part comes from the production of a confectioner in Poços de Caldas, in Minas Gerais.
“In the countryside, people still treat themselves to sweets. They were relegated to an area of unrefined cuisine, but it’s such a beautiful tradition. That’s why I wanted to rescue this duo for the very end of the meal. “, says Gabriella.
Famous for its exquisite confectionery, Marília Zylbersztajn is another one that bets on the return of traditional sweets. Sold in 300-gram jars, at R$18, the banana sweets, with a creamy consistency, and pumpkin with coconut are made by her.
“I love these sweets. Guava is one of my favorites, but so many people do it so well that I didn’t see much sense in making it either. It’s harder to find a good banana or pumpkin sweet.”
At the end of the year, Marília sold combos of sweets with sheep’s cheese. The combination with saltier and cured cheeses, she guarantees, is unbeatable.
The modernization of sweets involves reducing the amount of sugar. In the past, the ratio was one to one, that is, a kilo of fruit for a kilo of sugar — it was a way of making the cooking process easier and ensuring a longer shelf life, in a time when there were no refrigerators.
“The more sugar, the faster the candy reaches the point”, explains José Adolfo Pompernaier, a partner at Sítio Humaytá, located in Serra Fluminense. With around 30 jams and jellies on the factory’s menu, he is proud to have managed to achieve a considerable reduction in sugar. “Today, we use 200 grams for every kilo of fruit.”
The production of 15,000 pots per month is handmade — the sweets are stirred in pans and sold in emporiums, restaurants or through e-commerce. The brand’s biggest successes are the sweet orange-da-terra, with fig Ramy (which takes up to five days to produce) and ambrosia, based on milk and eggs.
Starting in June, Pompernaier will resume visits to the site, by appointment, so that tourists can spy the production up close and taste the sweets.
One of the hallmarks of this portion of traditional Brazilian sweets is the presence of few ingredients in the recipe — a legacy from a time when making sweets was a resource to preserve freshly harvested fruits in the backyard or use milk from their own production.
For chef Heloísa Bacellar, that’s how it is today. Presenter of the TV show “Na Cozinha da Helô”, on the cable channel Sabor & Arte, she lives on a farm in the interior of São Paulo and lives filling glass jars with her jams and creamy sweets.
“I’ve been harvesting an infinity of pumpkins and I’m making several different sweets, with and without coconut, in pieces, breaking up… A few months ago, I made a lot of fig, quince and plum sweets too. It’s a consistent practice for those who plant something and wants to enjoy something delicious for a long time”, he evaluates.
Preserving the confectionery tradition has also been the mission of Adriana Lira, owner of Dona Doceira, in Itaim Bibi. When she started her research, about 15 years ago, she chose the city of Goiás Velho, in Goiás, as her starting point. She spent many hours beside the bakers’ stoves to record the recipes.
“I pored over the notebooks, but the way to prepare the simplest sweets was not recorded. As the bakers did everything with an eye, I watched with the thermometer in hand to understand the different cooking processes”, he recalls.
In addition to jams such as lemon and green papaya, Adriana brought to São Paulo a beautiful tradition from the ancient capital of Goiás: the coconut ribbon flowers, a technique that has always been reserved for feast days. But she imposed two important changes to the recipe.
“I reduced the sugar by 60% and changed the coloring that the confectioners use for natural fruits. I started to color the flowers with blackberries and strawberries, for example.”
There is already a confectioner making real mischief from traditional confectionery. Owners of Fazenda Nova, in the south of Minas, the couple Carolina Sant’Anna Villela and Keith Rodrigues make sweets in a wood stove, using fruits from their own backyard.
The duo started with the guava, but gradually started risking more novel recipes. The jabuticaba jam has fresh thyme and allspice, while the guava caramel is seasoned with salt and chilli pepper. The production arrives in São Paulo through the artisanal cheese factory Brivido, which delivers the sweets at home, along with the brand’s cheeses.
Who also decided to play with the sweets was Paulo Lemos, aka Peéle, owner of Lano Alto, located in Catuçaba, district of São Luís do Paraitinga (SP). Instead of putting the sugared fruits on the fire, he adopts the technique of fermentation.
The trials began four years ago after Peéle learned a recipe for, lo and behold, garlic fermented with honey to cure the flu. “It worked as a medicine, but I liked the flavor so much that I decided to test it with other ingredients,” she says.
Fermented with honey or sugar, fruits such as peaches, bananas and blackberries, which are darker than the common ones, make good products to accompany cheeses and yogurt. For now, they can be purchased through the website and arrive in São Paulo through a scheme dubbed “solidarity rides”.
But, as soon as the store is ready, in June, Lano Alto starts to receive visitors on the property – just book in advance.
it’s not all the same
Although they start from the same principle, the recipes for fruit jams (and vegetables, in the case of pumpkin and sweet potato) can result in very different products, just by modifying some details of the process. Who explains it is Gil Gondim, author of the book “Conservas do Meu Brasil: Jams, Jellies and Antipastos” (Senac-SP).
- Jams are made with whole or sliced fruit, cooked in water with sugar and spices such as cloves and cinnamon.
- In the creamy jam, there is no water: only the fruit, sugar and spices.
- In the jelly recipe, fruits cooked in water with sugar and lemon receive the reinforcement of pectin, an element present in some fruits, with apple — in contact with the acidity of the lemon, it generates a gelatinous consistency.
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
