05/12/2025
It’s Christmas time, and there’s nothing better than showing you some traditional Portuguese foods during this season.
Let’s start with "Sonhos", "Rabanadas" and "Filhoses".
We Portuguese love them, and some people buy them ready-made, while the older generations spend hours in the kitchen preparing these classic Portuguese sweets.
"Sonhos", which literally means “dreams”, get their name from the light and fluffy feeling you get when eating them, as if you were dreaming. They are small fried balls, usually made with pumpkin, and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.
Another very typical sweet is rabanadas. These are slices of bread soaked in milk and eggs, fried, and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. There are records of this sweet being made as far back as the 15th century, originally as a way to use up stale bread from the day before.
Filhoses are fried treats made from a light, thin dough that can include orange or Portugal’s very traditional "Aguardente" (a type of strong spirit).
One thing is certain: do we use a lot of cinnamon at this time of year? Absolutely!