It is a type of doughnut, made of flattened rounds of yeasted dough, coated with sugar and cinnamon or accompanied with molasses.

[4] The malassada is believed to be derived from the filhós from mainland Portugal and Madeira, a product of the growing sugar industry during the sixteenth century.

[5] It was exported throughout Macaronesia, where it was introduced to the Azores and Canary Islands, reaching as far as Brazil during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

[8] However, another version asserts it was previously made using mel (Portuguese: molasses), having been named melassadas or melaçadas.

It is a tradition where the older children take the warm doughnuts and roll them in sugar while the eldest woman – mother or grandmother – cooks them.