Queijadas de Sintra
Tartlets known in Sintra since the Middle Ages — tradition says that as early as the 13th century they were handed over as part of the rent. They have a shell as thin as paper of plain flour and water and a filling of fresh cheese with egg yolks and cinnamon, baked until browned. The pastry matters most: rolled almost translucent it bakes into a crisp, brittle cup; thicker, it comes out hard as cardboard.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Pastry 20 min
- Resting 30 min
- Filling 10 min
- Baking 22 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneKnead a plain dough
Mix the flour with the salt, add the warm water and melted butter and knead 5 minutes into a smooth, elastic dough. No eggs, no sugar — it must stretch, as it will be rolled very thin.
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour · 100 ml water · 20 g butter · 1 pinch salt
Rest the dough half an hour
Wrap in film and rest 30 minutes at room temperature. The gluten relaxes and the dough rolls thin without shrinking. Freshly kneaded, it springs back with every pass of the pin.
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour · 100 ml water · 20 g butter · 1 pinch salt
Drain the cheese
If the cheese is wet, drain it in a muslin-lined sieve for half an hour, then push it through the sieve. Water from the cheese thins the filling, which then soaks through the thin pastry and leaves a soggy base.
Ingredients: 300 g fresh cheese · 180 g sugar · 4 pcs egg yolks · 30 g plain flour · 1½ tsp cinnamon · ½ pcs lemon
Mix the filling
Mix the sieved cheese with the sugar, yolks, flour, a teaspoon of cinnamon and the lemon zest into a smooth, thick mass. Do not whisk — aerated filling rises in the oven and sinks with cracks.
Ingredients: 300 g fresh cheese · 180 g sugar · 4 pcs egg yolks · 30 g plain flour · 1½ tsp cinnamon · ½ pcs lemon
Roll the pastry almost translucent
Roll the pastry on a floured worktop to 1 mm, thin enough to see through. The key to queijadas — thin pastry bakes into a crisp cup, thick turns hard.
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour · 100 ml water · 20 g butter · 1 pinch salt
A millimetre, see-through — thicker is like cardboard.Line the moulds
Cut 10 cm circles and press them into buttered tartlet moulds, pushing into the sides and leaving a frilled edge above the rim. The frill bakes crisp.
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour · 100 ml water · 20 g butter · 1 pinch salt
A frill above the rim — it bakes crisp.Fill three-quarters full
Spoon in the filling three-quarters of the way up. It rises in the oven and, filled to the brim, spills over the tray, gluing the tartlets to the moulds.
Ingredients: 300 g fresh cheese · 180 g sugar · 4 pcs egg yolks · 30 g plain flour · 1½ tsp cinnamon · ½ pcs lemon
Three-quarters — the filling rises in the oven.Bake until the tops brown
Bake 20–22 minutes at 200°C, until the filling rises and browns in spots and the pastry edges are golden. Cool in the moulds 10 minutes, turn out and serve warm, dusted with the remaining cinnamon.
Ingredients: 300 g fresh cheese · 180 g sugar · 4 pcs egg yolks · 30 g plain flour · 1½ tsp cinnamon · ½ pcs lemon
Before you start
Queijo fresco if you find it
Sintra queijadas use queijo fresco — fresh, unripened cheese. Ricotta is the closest substitute; curd cheese works too but must be well drained and sieved, being wetter and grainier.
The queijadas family
Queijadas are baked all over Portugal — in Évora, Madeira and the Azores among others — each with a slightly different filling. Sintra is famous for the thinnest pastry and a cinnamon filling.
The same day
Queijadas are best on the day they are baked, while the shell is crisp. The next day the pastry softens from the filling; refresh them 5 minutes in a 180°C oven.
