Train-Station Sweet · Egg Yolk Candy
Ovos Moles de Aveiro
Photo: Rodrigo.Argenton / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
The sweet egg-yolk filling exists because convent nuns used only egg whites to starch their habits, and needed somewhere to put the leftover yolks.
A sweet egg-yolk-and-sugar paste is sealed inside a thin wafer shell shaped like shells, barrels or fish. Traditionally sold in small wooden barrels from Aveiro's train station and market stalls to travelers passing through.
Why it's made this way: Nuns at Aveiro's Convent of Jesus developed the recipe, and after Portugal dissolved its religious orders in 1834 and the convents slowly emptied, women trained by the nuns carried the tradition into the market and train-station trade.
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