Folar de Chaves
Meat-Filled Easter Bread- Yield
- One large loaf, about 12 slices
- Active
- 45 minutes
- Total
- 4 hours, including 2 to 2 1/2 hours rising and 30 minutes cooling
- Difficulty
- Advanced
The story
The folar is Portugal's Easter bread, sweet in some regions and savory in others, and the town of Chaves in Trás-os-Montes is known for a savory one. Its dough of wheat flour, eggs, yeast, olive oil, lard or butter and salt is rolled around the region's cured meats: Presunto de Chaves, Salpicão de Chaves, Linguiça de Chaves, pork shoulder and salted or smoked pork belly. The Chaves municipality credits the loaf's reputation to the skill of local bakers and the quality of those meats, and notes that it was traditionally baked in wood-fired ovens.
The bread carries an old custom between godparents and godchildren. On Palm Sunday, March 21, 2027, godchildren traditionally bring their godmother a bunch of violets, and on Easter Sunday, March 28, she gives them a folar. The Michelin Guide calls the folar the sign of plenty after the Lenten fast and the most traditional gift from godparents. Demand for the Chaves loaf now calls for supply all year, so it is no longer only a seasonal bread.
Bake it on Holy Saturday and serve it at room temperature in thick slices, with olives and a green salad, for Easter lunch or a picnic the next day.
Ingredients and method
The full recipe, with US and metric measures and stand-ins for hard-to-find ingredients, is part of the Easter edition. Buy it once and keep the PDF.
Want to try first? Frankfurter Grüne Soße is free to cook.