You’re probably thinking – “does that mean Jesuit?” – and yes you are correct – this is the Jesuit pastry, another one of Portugal’s oddly named confections. We’ve previously noted the many religious names of Portuguese pastries, due to the fact that pastry-making was the purview of convents. Even today, many places say they specialize in “Doces Conventuais (convent sweets).” The Jesuíta is a little different than other Portuguese pastries, first for its triangular shape, but also for the fact that it is covered in a frosting glaze rather than egg cream or custard. The Jesuíta is a triangular puff pastry topped with a powdered sugar glaze, and filled with cinnamon egg cream, though in this case the type of filling may vary. Here is a Jesuíta recipe in Portuguese – I have found no recipes for this dish in English.
Jesuita pastry in Lisbon
Eating The World 
Jesuitas pastries filled with sweat cream
Makes 6
500g all-butter puff pastry
For the filling
4 large egg yolks
100g caster sugar
1 heaped tbsp cornflour
75ml water
Zest of 1/2 lemon
For the icing topping
1 large egg white
250g icing sugar
For the almond topping
1 large egg
1 tbsp caster sugar
40-50g flaked almonds
1 Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Wisk together all the filling ingredients in a small, heavy-based pan and set over a low heat. Stir constantly for 5 minutes or so until the mixture has thickened enough to hold its shape without flowing around the base of the pan. Remove from the heat, decant into a clean bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to cool.
2 If you are topping the pastries with icing, slowly whisk the egg white into the icing sugar until very thick and smooth. If you’re using the almond topping, beat the egg and caster sugar lightly together.
3 To make the jesuitas, cut the pastry block in half and roll out each piece on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle roughly 20X30cm. Leave them to rest a moment, then gently lift them from the surface and set down again, giving the dough a chance to relax. Roll out a little more if the dough shrinks back. This stops it shrinking and distorting after you’ve cut it into portions.
4 Cut out six triangles, each 10cm wide at their base and 20cm high, from both pieces of pastry. (Imagine the triangles lined up along the length of the pastry rectangle, three with their bases forming one long edge the other three upside-down slotted between, their bases forming the oppsite long edge.) You may be able to reroll any scraps to make another couple of triangles.
5 Spread half of the triangles with heaped tablespoons of the egg yold filling, then lay the remaining triangles on top. For iced pastries, spread a heaped teaspoon of the icing over the pastry, leaing a border of at least 0.5cm around the edges. (You won’t need all of the icing). For almond-topped jesuitas, brush the whole of the top wth the egg wash and sprinkle over the flaked almonds.
🙂
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