Heavenly eggs with apple and port compote (Toucinho do ceu)

Recipes / Eggs

This dessert was once enriched with pork fat, hence its strange translation of heavenly bacon. Today, the enrichment is egg yolks combined with sugar syrup, a duo that forms the basis of many Portuguese desserts. The yolks are a legacy of the wine industry, where whites were used to clarify wines, while the surplus yolks were given to nuns.

Recipe «Heavenly eggs with apple and port compote (Toucinho do ceu)» presented in category Recipes / Eggs, to prepare this dish you will need no more minutes. To make this dish at home by prescription from the author sheff would need: 655g caster sugar, Thinly peeled zest of 2 lemons, 2 cinnamon quills, 200g whole blanched almonds, 24 egg yolks , 250ml pouring cream, 4 Pink Lady apples, 20g butter , 80ml ruby port, 50g flaked almonds, toasted, to serve.

Ingredients:

  • 655g caster sugar 
  • Thinly peeled zest of 2 lemons 
  • 2 cinnamon quills 
  • 200g whole blanched almonds 
  • 24 egg yolks 
  • 250ml pouring cream 
  • 4 Pink Lady apples 
  • 20g butter 
  • 80ml ruby port 
  • 50g flaked almonds, toasted, to serve 

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Place 600g sugar, zest, cinnamon and 400ml water in a pan over low heat, stir to dissolve sugar, then simmer without stirring until mixture reaches 116°C (soft-ball stage) on a sugar thermometer. Discard zest and cinnamon.
  2. Meanwhile, process almonds in a food processor until finely ground, then stir into sugar syrup and cook for 3 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes.
  3. Whisk yolks and cream in a bowl, then gradually whisk in syrup mixture.
  4. Grease a 25cm round cake tin, then flour it, shaking out excess. Pour egg mixture into tin, place tin in a roasting pan, then pour in enough boiling water to reach halfway up side of tin. Bake for 25 minutes or until firm to the touch. Cool for 30 minutes, run a knife around the edge and turn out onto a plate.
  5. Cut apples into quarters, remove cores and seeds, then cut each quarter into 4 wedges. Place in a bowl and toss with remaining 55g sugar. Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat, add coated apples and cook until syrupy. Add butter and cook, turning, for 5 minutes or until golden and tender. Stir in the port.
  6. Serve heavenly eggs with compote, scattered with toasted flaked almonds.