If you haven’t heard of a Malasada before, then you are not alone. Perth is currently missing out as you won’t find these in any local café or bakery in Perth.
Malasadas are well known and recognised for their popularity in Hawaii. However, Malasadas are a fried donut that originate from the island of São Miguel in Portugal. São Miguel is an island in the Azores that was first settled by the Portuguese in 1427. In the 19th century, many Portuguese immigrant workers took their family recipes with them abroad.
Both Natasha and me (Steven), have European backgrounds that involved our families immigrating to Africa originally. Natasha’s family left Portugal for Mozambique and later South Africa where Natasha and I both grew up. Natasha grew up eating and making traditional Portuguese recipes with her grandmother and mother, which instilled a passion for food (particularly desserts 😊) and Portuguese cuisine. As we both get older (and balder for me), we have become more curious about our heritage and cooking more of the traditional food we grew up with. Our goal is to introduce the Malasada to Perth so that nobody needs to miss out on these incredible donuts any longer.
The name Malasada roughly translates to “poorly cooked” which comes from the fact that these donuts have a slight crisp to their exterior contrasted by a soft, doughy crumb.
When comparing Malasadas to traditional donuts, the technical process of making them is not all that different, both involve the frying of dough. The making of the dough is the key difference, the dough for Malasadas consists of bread flour incorporated with yeast, butter, eggs and milk. In contrast, a typical cake donut like the ones found at Donut King or Krispy Kreme, are based on normal flour which gives them a softer, fluffier texture.
After frying, Malasadas are traditionally rolled in sugar or cinnamon sugar, but they are equally as delicious filled. These donuts are versatile and can be enjoyed in many different ways such as cut open layered with bacon and eggs to make a unique delicious breakfast.
Once you have tried a Malasada, they will challenge the way you think of a donut.
Until now we have been introducing these amazing donuts to Perth at our local market stalls, but we will soon be launching our Malasadas online and making them available for delivery across Perth.
Click below to order your box of Malasadas now. Our Malasadas are available for deliver on Friday and Saturday in Perth.