Queijadas De Sintra Portuguese Cheese Tarts With Cinnamon

Portuguese towns and cities alike are incredibly proud of their traditional sweets and pastries. sintra, a beautiful hill town not far outside of lisbon, is understandably proud of this recipe. it is believed that this recipe dates from the 14th century! The actual recipe is, understandably, a close-guarded ages old secret, but this is a close approximation that i found on the internet. i visited sintra a few years ago and was amazed at how wonderful these tarts tasted! these keep longer than most pastries if stored in an airtight container. (i'm not too sure of the yield - what i have provided is an approximation).

Steps

For the pastry: combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.

With a pastry blender , cut in the shortening until the texture of fine meal.

Forking briskly , drizzle just enough ice water over the mixture to make it hold together.

Shape into a ball , wrap in wax paper , and refrigerate several hours.

Meanwhile , prepare the filling: in a food processor fitted with the metal chopping blade , process the mozzarella , butter , sugar , and cinnamon about 60 seconds nonstop until smooth and creamy.

Scrape down the work bowl sides with a rubber spatula and beat 60 seconds longer.

Add the egg yolks , one at a time , beating well after each addition.

Add the flour and pulse the motor on once or twice to blend.

Transfer the mixture to a small bowl.

Cover and chill several hours.

When ready to bake the queijadas , preheat the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.

Divide the pastry in half and roll , first one half , then the other , as thin as paper , on a lightly floured pastry cloth with .

Ingredients

all-purpose flour, salt, vegetable shortening, ice water, fresh mozzarella cheese, unsalted butter, sugar, ground cinnamon, egg yolks