This traditional Portuguese recipe is courtesy of Fernanda
I’m always keen to try Portuguese recipes so when Fernanda kindly shared this recipe I thought I would experiment. I tried to discover what the word “Farófias” actually meant but unfortunately it did not translate. Any clues please?
I’ve never tasted Farófias before so my taste buds had no frame of reference to call on. However, I hope my attempt does Fernanda’s recipe justice and if not please try not to laugh as I am always open to suggestions.
Ingredients
4 eggs (separated)
1 litre milk
1 lemon
Cinnamon stick
Cinnamon powder
Farinha Maizena (corn flour)
Castor sugar to taste (about 3 teaspoons)
Method
Put in a saucepan around 7.5 dl (750ml) of milk with a cinnamon stick and a thin lemon peel, heat to boiling.
While you are waiting for the milk to come to the boil beat the egg whites (4 eggs) with a few drops of lemon. When firm, add 3 teaspoons of sugar and beat some more.
Remove the lemon peel and the cinnamon stick. Lower the heat and carefully place one or two tablespoons of the egg whites in the shape of a ball. I used two spoons.
Cook them by “playing” with the heat, letting the milk boil again so that’s easier to turn the egg whites until they are cooked.
Remove with a slotted spoon to a dish and transfer to dish.
When all the egg whites are cooked add the rest of the milk (total 1 litre), add some sugar heat but not boil. Add cornstarch (Farinha Maizena) to thicken if required. Add the egg yolks (NB make sure the milk does not boil otherwise the eggs will scramble. This happened to me and I had to start again).
Bring back to heat to thicken, do not boil and keep stirring.
Once it is ready, add to the bowl where the “farófias” are and sprinkle with cinnamon.
Mr Piglet is not too keen on cinnamon so as you can see I used sparingly.
PS, I was also tempted to take a photograph of my kitchen when I’d finished because Mr. Piglet reckoned I used every pot, pan, dish, spoon and utensil we owned! He was probably right…
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Portuguese recipes
Piglet in Portugal 
Wow! that is a time consuming dish.. 😉
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Happy New Year Carole to you and family xxx
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Just popping by to wish you & your family a very Happy New Year! 🙂
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Lovely – and I´m with others on the Floating Islands!
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looks yummy and I too would have liked to see pic of kitchen.
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hi…Farofias are one of my favorite desserts because I like meringue and also because I don`t like my desserts too sweet and this is one dessert that you can easily ajust the sweetness to your taste. It takes practice though and one of my tricks is to add the sugar to the egg whites a bit at a time and tasting it before I add more.
I`ve heard the term floating islands and that`s an apt description however the word farofia has several meanings and one of them is snow globe which evokes the shape and color of the farofia balls.
I also like to serve them with berries as suggested by someone else and another idea – for those who don’t like the eggy taste – is to pour a shot of a favorite liquor – I use Grand Marnier – or coffee to the individual serving.
As for the messy kitchen…it’s worth it! 🙂
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I love anything with lemon and cinnamon. These sound really delicious, PiP.
I wish you had posted a pic of your kitchen. 😦
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You do a great job making fun and tasty treats. This looks yummy! 🙂
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I love this dessert, also one of my childhood favourites! The white “clouds” should be soft. I don´t think it´s too sweet a dessert either, as the egg whites cut the sweetness of the custard.
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Pretty clouds What a cute recipe so here’s a silly question Is it a dessert?
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This is what the French call île flottante. Not my favorite recipe. It’s a bit too sugary for my tastebuds. Yours looks tastey and the recipe looks clear, precise, and not difficult to follow. It’s funny that Mr. Piglet doesn’t care for cinnamon because apparently the French aren’t a fan generally.
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Hi didi my Mr Piglet is English, my daughter pigletinfrance’s husband another Mr Piglet is French. Mr Piglet was not too keen he thought the custard tasted a little eggy, but I liked it. Perhaps I should use less egg yolks next time. I think he was just mad at me because I had custard all over the work tops and hob and it set like sticky concrete. I have more of a creative spirit 🙂
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Well I think it’s supposed to taste a little eggy. I think that’s why I don’t like it. It’s that combination of fat and sugar. It’s “trop”. I’m the same when I cook – a mess. The kitchen is to be condemned , but my cooking and baking is good. I just take my time to clean everything up when I’m finished.
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Oh, such a shame that it was not clear in “my” recipe that you had to add the egg yolks out of the heat. And did you like it?
I have no idea about how/where the word (or the recipe) were originated. But since our traditional desserts use a lot of egg yolks, I suppose that one day someone decided to try to do something with the remaining egg whites.
That’s what we usually do, farófias and “papos de anjo” for example, because I don’t put the egg yolks on the remaining milk.
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Hi Fernanda, your recipe was clear but I did not read it correctly 🙂 It’s easy to miss something and it’s not the first time I’ve had problems making custard. But now I’ve cracked it! The maizeha was a good tip.Yes, I liked the recipe, but not sure how squidgy the whites should be once cooked.
I liked the suggestion above about adding almonds and will try it again, serving it up into individual glass dishes. I may even experiment further by adding layers of farófias, leite creme, berries and almonds. 🙂 I love trying new recipes so please keep them coming. 🙂
thank you
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Yes, ‘floating islands’ is the closest I can attain also! As a child back in NE Europe that was one of the few desserts I would actually eat: it was fun catching the ‘beasties’ from the custard and they were not too sweet and simply air bubbles dissolving on one’s palate! One more, please, Mom 😀 !
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🙂 so this was an old favourite from your childhood 🙂
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I’m with thorny rose . . . not a fan of egg whites. Did you like it?
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I love meringue, but not sure if I cooked them enough. Yes I did like it, but am going to try and experiment and makes some variations using the basic recipe
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Yummy looking in any language!
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It sounded good until you got to the part about the egg whites. Something about egg whites makes me gag. Must be the texture because I also don’t like jello, US-style puddings, whites of deviled eggs, etc. Anything with a shaky, semi-rubbery texture. Up until then, it sounded great. Merry Christmas, PiP!
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I can’t be sure because I’ve never made them, but they look like what are called Floating Islands in English, Îles Flottantes in French.
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Hi Gillian, yes they do look like floating islands. BTW just checked out your blog, see you have not posted for a while. Did you ever complete the salad challenge?
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This looks delicious Pip! I’ll have to try the recipe with some of my fresh, homegrown eggs.
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Apple Pie above provided a link and that included almonds.
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This was the most I could find: http://home-gourmets.blogspot.com/2008/12/farfias-hugs.html
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Your search revealed more than mine. so they are clouds!
I like the way she presented it! I just had a quick look on image search. the addition of almonds is also a nice touch 🙂
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