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São Miguel Vila Franca do Campo Sweets

Vila Franca Curd Tarts (Queijadas da Vila)

Homemade queijadas da Vila, the convent sweet from Vila Franca do Campo on São Miguel: a soft filling of milk curd, egg yolks and sugar in thin pastry.

Makes
20 pieces
Prep
1h
Cooking
20 min
Waiting
12h
Difficulty
Hard
Vila Franca Curd Tarts (Queijadas da Vila)

Queijadas da Vila are small sweets from Vila Franca do Campo: thin pastry wrapped around a soft, moist filling of milk curd, egg yolks, sugar and butter. Tradition links them to the town's Convent of Santo André, and today they are an emblematic product of the municipality.

This is a traditional homemade version, which starts the day before with making the curd.

Method

  1. The day before, warm the milk until lukewarm, add the rennet and stir. Cover and leave undisturbed until the milk has set.

  2. Cut the curd, tip it into a fine cloth and squeeze firmly until all the whey has run out.

  3. Work the drained curd until very smooth, then add the yolks, egg white, sugar, butter and flour and mix well.

  4. Heat the mixture gently, stirring constantly, just until it comes to the boil. Take it off the heat, let it cool a little, press it through a sieve and refrigerate until the next day.

  5. The next day, mix the flour, egg, butter, lard, sugar and salt, adding warm water a little at a time until you have a smooth dough that rolls out easily. Wrap it in a cloth and let it rest.

  6. Preheat the oven to 180 °C.

  7. Roll the pastry out very thinly on a floured worktop and cut out discs about 12 cm across.

  8. Place a portion of filling in the centre of each disc, then lift and pleat the edges to form a small cup. Wrap each tart in a strip of baking paper about 2 cm high to hold its shape.

  9. Arrange the tarts on a baking tray and bake for about 20 minutes, until the pastry is cooked and the filling lightly golden.

  10. Leave to cool, remove the paper strips and dust with icing sugar.

Tips

  • Rennet strength varies by brand; follow the packet and, if the milk does not set, add a little more.
  • Use whole milk, ideally raw, for a richer curd.
  • Instead of the baking-paper strips, you can use small muffin or tartlet tins, greased with butter and dusted with flour.
  • The whey left over from the curd can be used to make bread.

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