The soft eggs were born in the Monastery of Jesus in Aveiro. In the 8th century, sugar cane arrived in Portugal with the Arabs, but it was only a few centuries later that the ideal soil for its planting was found: the island of Madeira.
From then on, sugar became one of the most important economic activities in the empire. Part of the production went to the king, who then separated the portion that he sent to the convents. The Aveiro monastery was the work of D. Brites Leitoa, the noblewoman who came from the court to the Vagos region, where she had a farm.
A series of food products were produced there, such as eggs, wine and cereals. Part of this production went to the monastery that received sugar from the crown. Initially, this sugar was for pharmaceutical purposes, but creativity and necessity led the nuns to use it for other purposes: egg candy.
They realized that it was necessary to handle and store that creamy paste, so they came up with the idea of placing it inside the hosts, precisely the same ones used in communion.
This is how Aveiro’s soft eggs were born, which have the designation of Protected Geographical Indication (PGI).
