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Encharcada convent sweet with cinnamon in a clay dish.
Sweets

Encharcada (Alentejo Egg Yolks Poached in Cinnamon Syrup)

Leonor Perreira · Updated Nov 12, 2026
Prep
15 min
Total
40 min
Servings
8
Calories
375 kcal
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Encharcada, from the Convent of Santa Clara in Évora, is convent baking at its plainest. The name means “soaked”: the eggs cook in, and are drenched by, a thick, fragrant sugar syrup, and the dish often goes under the grill at the end to toast the cinnamon on top.

It was born in the convent as a way to use the egg yolks left over (the whites were used to starch habits or clarify wine). Today it’s one of the best-known sweets of the region and a fixture at festive Alentejo tables.

Recipe

Encharcada do Convento de Santa Clara

An Alentejo convent sweet of egg yolks, sugar, cinnamon and lemon, cooked in syrup until glossy and soft. Very sweet, with centuries of tradition.

Ingredients

8 servings

Method

  1. 1
    In a wide frying pan or shallow pan (the bottom needs plenty of surface), put the sugar, water, cinnamon stick and lemon peel.
  2. 2
    Cook over low heat, without stirring, and let it boil until the syrup reaches the pearl stage (108 °C: the syrup runs off the spoon in a thick thread, forming a slow pearl at the tip, or the bubbles burst slowly and thickly on the surface). Don't let it go past this point to caramel.
  3. 3
    While the syrup boils, strain the yolks and whole eggs through a fine sieve into a bowl and beat them lightly (just to break them up; don't make foam).
  4. 4
    Keep the syrup at a gentle boil. Pour the eggs slowly from the bowl into the middle of the syrup, in a thin stream.
  5. 5
    With a skimmer, quickly start pushing the cooked egg from the edges toward the middle. It sets into irregular, spongy pieces that soak up the syrup. Keep pushing gently toward the middle so it doesn't break up completely, letting it cook in the syrup for about 10 to 15 minutes.
  6. 6
    With the skimmer, carefully lift out the cooked egg (leaving the lemon peel and cinnamon stick behind) and put it in a deep clay or glass dish (don't press it down).
  7. 7
    Pour the syrup left in the pan over the eggs in the dish (encharcada must never be dry; that's where the name comes from).
  8. 8
    Dust the whole surface generously with ground cinnamon.
  9. 9
    The classic finishing touch (optional): put the dish under the oven grill on its highest setting (or use a kitchen torch) for a very short time, just until the cinnamon on top toasts and bubbles lightly. Serve well chilled.
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Tips

The eggs go into the boiling syrup in a wide pan and are pushed toward the middle, forming clouds that soak up the syrup. Never stir them like scrambled eggs: push them gently.

Watch the syrup: past the pearl stage it turns to caramel and the encharcada hardens.

With so much sugar, it keeps for 4 to 5 days in the fridge in a closed container.

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