Queques de Manteiga "Portuguese Butter Cakes"

While my kitchen is by most standards eye soring, if an Italian would step in he would know I got my priorities straight.  In this small corner of South Tel Aviv, where Turkish and mud coffee reigns supreme, I own a Bezzera Giulia. 

Like all things Italian, it not only makes the best espresso I know, it's also beautiful and so shiny that everything else ugly in my kitchen magically vanishes.  But that deserves a post all of it's own. 

Today, I want to share with you a portuguese recipe for queques, which happen to go heavenly with a nice cup of coffee.

Queques are buttery muffin style cakes sold in every single coffee shop in Portugal. While some are just a mass of dough to eat and forget about, others belong to the realm of foodie heaven. This recipe comes straight from the worned out pages of a Teleculinaria from the 80s, which I'm sure rings a bell for many portuguese people, who would eagerly wait for the magazine to come out every month.
These delicious cakes were not made in a traditional wavy mold, but I'm sure you'll forgive me!

Lets just get to the recipe shall we... :-)

Queques de Manteiga 

"Portuguese Butter Cakes"

0.5 l milk

300 g salted butter

7 eggs

500 g of sugar

zest of a lemon or orange

1 shot of brandy

750 g of flour 

2 teaspoons of baking powder

In a small pan, bring the milk and butter a slow boil.

In a mixing bowl, beat the sugar, eggs, zest and brandy.  While beating, slowly add the hot milk, the flour and baking powder. Cover the bater and keep in the fridge until the next day (you can skip this and make them straight away, but they won't taste the same). Turn on the oven at 180 degrees celcius. Fill 2/3 of  paper muffin cups with batter and bake for about 18 minutes, or until they are nice and golden. You can also sprinkle some granulated sugar or even dried coconut on top, before baking.

This recipe wields about 20 cakes.
I highly recommend using waxed muffin cups by the way. Because these cakes are really buttery, you won't end up with ugly butter-stained paper cups. I bought these here.

Enjoy!