Sericaia
A dessert from the Alentejo, traditionally served in Portugal with Elvas plums in syrup. It looks like a failure and is meant to: the surface cracks into deep fissures and the whole thing sinks as it leaves the oven. Those crevices are not a fault — they collect the cinnamon the dessert is dusted with before and after baking. What matters is spooning the mixture in unevenly, since a smoothed surface will not crack.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Milk base 20 min
- Whisked whites 15 min
- Baking 40 min
- Cooling 30 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneSlake the flour in cold milk
Set aside 150 ml of cold milk and whisk the flour into it until smooth. Flour tipped into hot milk lumps at once — and lumps in this dessert can never be hidden afterwards.
Ingredients: 600 ml milk · 60 g plain flour · 200 g sugar · 2 pcs cinnamon · 1 pcs lemon · 1 pinch salt
Boil the milk with cinnamon sticks
Bring the rest of the milk to a boil with the cinnamon sticks, lemon zest and salt, then pour in the slurry and cook 5 minutes, stirring all the time, until thickened. Sticks, not ground cinnamon — ground would turn the base grey.
Ingredients: 600 ml milk · 60 g plain flour · 200 g sugar · 2 pcs cinnamon · 1 pcs lemon · 1 pinch salt
Cinnamon sticks in the milk — ground would colour the base.Add sugar and yolks off the heat
Take off the heat, remove the cinnamon and zest and stir in the sugar. Mix the yolks in a bowl with 3–4 tablespoons of the hot base, and only then pour them into the pan, stirring briskly. Tipped straight into the hot base, they set into threads of scrambled egg.
Ingredients: 6 pcs eggs
Whisk the whites to stiff peaks
Leave the base for about 15 minutes to cool to lukewarm, stirring now and then so no skin forms. Towards the end heat the oven to 200°C and whisk the whites to stiff but not dry peaks — they should fold over at the tip rather than crumble. Overwhisked whites collapse on folding and the dessert comes out flat and dense instead of light.
Ingredients: 6 pcs eggs
Fold the whites into a lukewarm base
Check that the base is lukewarm and fold in the whites in three additions, cutting from below with a spatula. In a hot base the foam deflates fast and the dessert will not rise — the base must not feel warmer than your hand.
Ingredients: 6 pcs eggs
Lukewarm base, whites in three additions, folded from below.Spoon it in unevenly
Spoon the mixture into a shallow clay (or ovenproof) dish of about 20 × 30 cm in irregular mounds, and do not smooth the surface. Sift roughly half the ground cinnamon over the top. Those very irregularities crack in the oven and form the fissures where the cinnamon collects.
Ingredients: 600 ml milk · 60 g plain flour · 200 g sugar · 2 pcs cinnamon · 1 pcs lemon · 1 pinch salt
Uneven mounds — they become the crevices for cinnamon.Bake 35 minutes and let it sink
Bake 35 minutes at 200°C, until deep gold and deeply cracked. The dessert sinks as it comes out — correct and unavoidable. Cool 30 minutes in the dish it baked in.
Fill the cracks with cinnamon and serve with plums
Sift the rest of the ground cinnamon into the cracks, not just over the top. Simmer the prunes in a syrup of the sugar and water for 15 minutes — most easily while the dessert bakes — and serve alongside. In the Alentejo they are sericaia's classic partner.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp ground cinnamon · 400 g prunes · 100 g sugar · 300 ml water
Before you start
A shallow clay dish
The Portuguese bake sericaia in a flat clay dish that heats gently and evenly. A deep dish gives a dessert damp inside and without cracks — and the cracks are half the character. The layer should be 3 cm.
Elvas plums
Classically served with Elvas plums (ameixas d'Elvas) — greengages in syrup with a protected designation of origin. Ordinary prunes simmered in syrup, ideally with a cinnamon stick and a strip of lemon zest, make a good substitute.
Two days, best lukewarm
Sericaia is best on the day it is baked, lukewarm or at room temperature — never straight from the fridge. It is made of eggs and milk, so keep leftovers in the fridge for up to 2 days and take them out an hour before serving to regain their creaminess.
