Monteiro Lopes

History

Monteiro Lopes is a delicate cookie made with chocolate and covered in sugar crystals. It is a typical cookie from this region. Its name is a tribute to the family that created the recipe.

Between 1850 and 1870, in Santa Maria de Belém do Grão Pará (Belem’s old name), there were two bakers: one on the oriental Ver-o-Peso side and the other on the occidental side. One was Manoel Monteiro, a mulatto, and the other, Antônio Lopes, a Portuguese. They were rivals, and, traditionally, each one produced cookies with different tastes and colors. Their kids, after their fathers died, married and stopped being rivals. They brought together the colors and the flavors into one cookie,which is called Monteiro Lopes.

You can taste these delicious cookies in any bakery. So, if you are coming to Belém or you plan to travel, you can enjoy Monteiro Lopes!

Ingredients

500g of wheat flour

250g of butter

Pinch of salt

3 tablespoons of sweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons of water

5 tablespoons of sugar

How you make it

1. Mix the flour, butter and a pinch of salt in a bowl until the mixture becomes a dough-like consistancy;
2. Next, start making small quarter-sized balls, then roll them into crescent-shaped strips
3. Place on an ungreased baking dish without covering in sugar;
4. Bake for approximately 25 minutes;
5. They will be ready when they become golden brown;
6. Remove from oven and let cool;
7. Meanwhile mix three scoops of chocolate and 2 tablespoons of water at room temperature in a cup;
8. After the cookies cool, take each one and dip it only halfway in chocolate;
9. After doing this cover each cookie in sugar.