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Berlin Balls on the beach - Bolas de Berlim na praia


Bola the Berlim is fried sweet dough, filled with egg cream that became part of the Portuguese culinary tradition. Our favourite place to it, is on the beach!
The Portuguese recipe is an adaptation of the original Berliner. The original was brought to Portugal during WWII, when Jewish German families took refuge in Portugal. The originals were filled with red berries jam.
But the Portuguese most popular version is filled with egg cream, more in line with our taste and traditions. We love egg sweets in Portugal.
We also use just normal sugar to dust it, rather than powder sugar.
There are plenty of versions around the world, but I love the Portuguese recipe.
You can find this Bolas de Berlim in any pastelaria (bakery with coffee shop), but our favourite place to eat them, no doubt, is on the beach. That’s when they taste out of this world.
It is a Portuguese tradition and I don't know any portuguese who doesn't have memories eating them on the beach. When the sales man, all dressed in white, crosses the sand, carrying the magic white box and chants: Olha a bola de Berlin!!(Look at the Berlin ball), you start seeing a sudden movement of people that surround him and,  for around €1.20,  buy happiness, you just need to tell the seller if you want with or without cream, but most of us, obviously, will have it with cream.
In recent years, new versions have been showing up, like chocolate and carob and all sort of combinations, but nothing like the original!
So if you go the beach in Portugal, make sure you eat one!!As we like to say, going to the beach without having eaten a Bola de Berlin is like not having gone to the beach. Ah, don’t think about sharing one, you will regret it, and by that time, the sales man might have gone!

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