The nuns of Amarante’s Poor Clare convent began making sweets from little more than eggs, sugar, and almonds in the 1930s, turning kitchen scraps into pastries that helped fund the convent’s upkeep. When the convent closed in 1862, the recipes nearly disappeared with it. Alcino dos Reis, who’d moved to Amarante from Porto at age 14 in 1899, spent the early 1900s tracking down and reviving the lost recipes, eventually opening a bakery that became famous for its Lérias, delicate pastries that gave the shop its name.
The bakery building itself, a 1930s structure on the banks of the Tâmega River, has since been converted into a 22-room boutique hotel that still serves the original recipes at its riverside café. Amarante’s other confections, including Foguetes and Papos de Anjo, trace back to the same convent tradition.