This regional bread is a staple of Portuguese cuisine and the identity of a region.
Wood Fired Bread From Alentejo
It is believed that it was the Romans who introduced the cereals to Alentejo (the province of Alentejo was known as “the granary of Rome”). Together with the ingenuity and artistry of the Arabs who introduced the tools: watermills and the Portuguese “nora”, Alentejo gained the ability to transform cereals into this very special and delicious bread.
In the Southern plains of Alentejo, bread making is an ancient craft.
A living being shaped by wisdom
Alentejo bread has an acid flavor. Its crust is hard, lustreless with a light brown colour, giving it a compact crumb and a rough appearance. Inside the bread is super white.
This bread is a “pão de testa” which literally means bread “with a forehead”: it is folded over so that one end is higher than the other. Its crust is light brown and the inside white, it can weigh from 1 to 1.5 kg.
It is made from wheat flour (without the use of mixes and above all without the use of durum wheat), yeast (bread dough with yeast or “acrescento”), salt and water; it is then cooked in a wood burning oven.
Wheat, Salt, water, yeast… It’s a labour of love