Tasty Recipes for the Home Cook

Dessert

Cavacas (Portuguese Pastry)

Cavacas is a popover style Portuguese pastry. It is light and airy, and the glaze has a hint of lemon. Delicious!

Cavacas (Portuguese Pastry)
  Instagram  Yummy

My friend Ria brought Cavacas to my house when she and her husband visited one day. I have never had it before, and it was love at first bite! It was crusty and sweet on the outside, soft, eggy, and air-pocket-filled on the inside. With a sweet lemony glaze, it was perfection! I knew immediately that I had to learn how to make them.

Cavacas (Portuguese Pastry)

Cavacas (Portuguese Pastry)

Cavacas are a Portuguese pastry. They are essentially dessert popovers and can be baked in muffin or popover tins. Thanks to Maria Lawton, the author of Azorean Cooking, I don’t have to make a special trip to a Portuguese bakery for these heavenly treats. Her recipe was exactly what I was looking for. I can make them any time I want at home!

The recipe is simple, but it does require a whole lot of mixing. Thank goodness for stand mixers! It does most of the work for you.


Recipe Highlights:  

  • To make, just put all the ingredients into the bowl.
  • Mix away for at least 20 minutes.
  • Fill greased muffin tins or popover pans halfway with batter.
  • They come out of the oven looking like this…puffy, airy and irresistible!! 

  • Glaze Cavacas while warm. Then enjoy!

  • Cavacas are best eaten fresh. Day on old ones tend to dry out (but I always manage to choke them down, hee hee). If you need to store them, keep them refrigerated in an airtight container. Leave them out to come to room temp before eating.


    Affiliate links. The products I recommend are either what I use, are on my wish list, or come highly rated.)

    • Stand mixer—this is larger than the one I have. I would like one this size. It’s has very good ratings and is reasonably priced.
    • Standard size muffin pans to bake the queijadas in.
    • This mini popover pan can be used instead of standard size muffin pans. The two essentially hold the same capacity per cavity.
    • Small spatula to spread glaze onto the cavacas. I have this set and use it constantly.
    Cavacas

    YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE THESE RECIPES

    Cavacas (Portuguese Pastry)

    Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 30 minutesCook time: 45 minutesTotal time:1 hour 15 minutesServings:12 Servings

    Description

    Cavacas is a popover style Portuguese pastry. It is light and airy, and the glaze has a hint of lemon. Delicious!

    Ingredients

    •  Sugar Glaze:

    • Suggested supplies (affiliate links):

    Instructions

    1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
    2. Grease standard size muffin tins or popover tins.
    3. Using an electric mixer or stand mixer (on level 6) beat flour, oil, 1/2 cup milk, and eggs for at least 20 minutes without stopping.  Fill the muffin or popover tins no more than half way.
    4. Place on the middle rack. For moist Cavacas, bake for about 45 minutes; for dry Cavacas bake for 1 hour.
    5. Combine all of the glaze ingredients and stir until smooth. I tend to use slightly more than 2 tablespoons milk. While Cavacas are still warm, spoon the glaze over each one or just submerge each one in the glaze
    6. Serve on the same day since they will dry even more for the following day.

    Note:

    • The quantity and bake time are for cavacas baked in standard size muffin pans or mini popover pans. If you use standard size popover pans, you will yield less in quantity, but larger cavacas. Bake time would also increase due to the size difference.
    Keywords:Portuguese dessert, Pastry

    Disclosure: This site contains paid advertising and affiliate links. In Good Flavor is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.


    19 Comments

    1. Anonymous says:

      The cavacas that I have experienced are not shaped like you have. I have had them shaped like a bowl and I have had some shaped like a flat oval.I would assume it is all done with the same recipe, but not done in a muffin pan. Any thoughts on getting any of these other shapes?

    2. Cavacas are commonly known as Portuguese Popovers because they are often baked in popover pans or muffin pans. The ones that my friend gets from the bakery are coned shaped because I think they are baked in a deep popover pans. To answer your question, I think the shape of the pastry just depends on the shape of the vessel they are baked in, so an oval one might be baked in an oval mold or ramekin. I also think the amount of batter in the mold affects its final shape, although the is just an educated guess…I have not tested it out.

    3. Anonymous says:

      I have made these several times and they always turn out perfect, I think the trick is to put the batter half way.

    4. Those look delicious!! I'd love to try them. You should have seen my catastrophic dinner last week. It came out delicious, but looked horrible. LOL Thanks for linking them up with us at Foodie Fridays!

    5. Ha ha!! We all had our share of those meals! But when it tastes good, nobody really cares how looks, right?

    6. What a wonderful treat, wish I had one with my afternoon tea. Hope you are having a great day and thanks so much for sharing this awesome post with Full Plate Thursday.
      Come Back Soon!
      Miz Helen

    7. Thank you! I like that the mixer does all of the work for you. Have a great week!

    8. Anonymous says:

      My mother made these and she used little individual pie tins.

    9. They must look scrumptious. I'm sure they taste delicious!! 🙂

    10. They look so similar to Yorkshire puddings, but for those you need more oil. I would like to try these.

    11. These have a little more of a chew then Yorkshire pudding, but they are so good! I hope you'll try them!!

    12. They are call cavacas or carolinas, working as a baker in a Portuguese bakery, they are molded with a pastry bag into little ball that puffs in the oven.
      Carolinas or cavacas are a modify pate a choux, the difference is that, pate a choux we boil water with butter or margarine, add the flour and mixed well until a dough is formed, then we put it in the mixer bowl add the eggs and we have either one of them.

    13. I want to make these! But what kind of oil? Vegetable? I read elsewhere olive oil! Thank you in advance!

    14. Thank you for stopping by! I use canola or vegetable oil. I have not used olive oil, but you can give it a try…maybe a light tasting one?

    15. You can use either vegetable oil or olive oil!!!!!…. (:

    16. These are like Pate A Choux and could probably sustain a curd filling. I think I will give these a go and fill them w/lemon curd or maybe even an orange curd w/the zested glaze omitting the milk and using the juice instead w/a dash of vanilla extract. I'm a huge fan a citrus (especially lemon!). Thank you for the recipe. My boyfriends family is Portuguese so hopefully I will get a chance to make them for them one day.

    17. What your idea sounds amazing!! It makes me want to try it too. Good luck! I would love to know how it turns out!!

    18. Father-in-law had these shipped from hos hometown in Portugal at Christmas to eat with roasted Chestnuts. Delicious. Going to try your recipe.

    19. Wow! That was a special shipment! I hope you’ll like these!!

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *