Queijadas de Sintra (Sintra Cheese and Cinnamon Tarts)
- Prep
- 40 min
- Total
- 1 h 5 min
- Servings
- 10
- Calories
- 225 kcal
Queijadas de Sintra are small tarts of very thin pastry filled with fresh cheese, sugar, egg yolks and cinnamon, baked until the filling has a golden, lightly scorched top.
Queijadas have been made in Sintra for centuries. The town was always a place of farms with cattle and fresh cheese, and cheese sweets were so common they were even used to pay rents and dues. Century-old shops still sell them wrapped in paper, in rolls of six, a must for visitors to Sintra.
Recipe
Queijadas de Sintra
A Sintra sweet with a creamy filling of fresh cheese, sugar and cinnamon in thin, crisp pastry. A sweet with centuries of history.
Ingredients
Method
- 1Before you start: it's essential to let the fresh cheese drain its whey for several hours (ideally wrapped in a thin cloth in the fridge with a weight on top), until its texture is close to requeijão or dry ricotta.
- 2Make the pastry: in a bowl, put the flour, butter and salt. Add the warm water gradually and knead very well until you have a smooth, elastic dough that doesn't stick to your hands. Shape into a ball, wrap in cling film and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.
- 3Make the filling: mash the drained cheese very well with a fork, breaking up all the lumps.
- 4Add the sugar to the cheese and beat well.
- 5Add the egg yolks, cinnamon and flour. Stir until you have a smooth cream.
- 6Roll out the pastry on a floured counter until extremely thin (almost see-through, but without tearing).
- 7With a round cutter (or a wide glass), cut out circles of pastry.
- 8Butter small metal tins. Line them with the pastry circles, pressing the bottom lightly so no air is trapped.
- 9Fill each tin with the cheese filling, almost to the top.
- 10Bake in an oven preheated to 200 °C (400 °F) for about 20 to 25 minutes. The surface of the filling should be toasted (smooth and flat or slightly sunken; the dark top is part of a queijada's character).
- 11Turn them out once cold.
Tips
Well-drained cheese is the secret of this recipe: extra whey makes the filling watery and stops it setting in the oven.
Let the pastry rest for at least 30 minutes so it’s more elastic and easier to roll thin. Mash the cheese well so the filling has no lumps.
Turn them out only once cold; hot, they’re fragile and break. They keep for two to three days in a closed container somewhere cool, or up to four in the fridge.
