Travesseiros de Sintra

The travesseiro - the word means pillow - is a rectangle of laminated puff pastry folded over a filling of ground almond, egg yolk and sugar, baked so the pastry blisters and shatters, and rolled in sugar while hot. It was created at the Piriquita bakery on Rua das Padarias, which has been open since 1862 and which still makes them in batches through the day, so if you time it right they come out of the oven onto the counter and the difference between one straight from the tray and one that has sat an hour is considerable. The same bakery makes the queijada de Sintra, a small cheese tart of fresh curd, cinnamon and sugar in a thin crisp shell, which is the older Sintra sweet, recorded here since the medieval period. Both are sold across the town, but the queue outside Piriquita is the town's own verdict on where to buy them.

What's there

• The travesseiro - folded puff pastry with almond and egg cream, sugared hot.
• Piriquita - the 1862 bakery that created them, baking in batches through the day.
• The queijada - the older Sintra sweet of fresh curd, cinnamon and sugar.
• The timing - the difference between straight from the tray and an hour old.

When to go

Year-round. A few minutes, plus the queue. Ask when the next batch comes out - it is worth waiting for.

Practical notes

The queue at Piriquita is long through the middle of the day. Sintra as a whole is severely overcrowded. Travesseiros do not keep - they are meant to be eaten within an hour or two. Very sweet and rich.

Nearby

Sintra's national palace is in the town centre; Pena and the Moorish castle are above.