Queijadas de Feijão/Bean Tarts

I must confess…I have a problem…I collect cookbooks.  I haven’t counted them in a while, and I’m afraid to see how many I own.  Spanish, Portuguese, Azorean, canning, Dutch oven, the list goes on and on!  Those are the actual books… I’m not counting the e-books I have on my iPad! I have one Azorean cookbook, Food of the Azores Islands, by Deolinda Maria Avila, that  has some wonderful recipes including this bean tart.   I am always looking for bean dishes for the California Beans Bean Sack blog I write, and I found this wonderful queijadas recipe that uses beans.  We had something similar at Tasca restaurant in Sao Miguel in the Azores.  This recipe takes a while, but it is well worth the time.

Queijadas de Feijão
Bean Tarts

adapted from Food of the Azores Islands

Ingredients:
2 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups bean puree
1/2 Tablespoon butter
6 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon lemon rind
1/2 cup ground almonds or almond flour

Instructions:
Soak 1 cup of white beans overnight in water. Drain and rinse beans. Put in a small saucepan with water to just cover and cook until softened. Drain beans. Put beans in a food processor and puree. Measure out 1 1/3 cups.
Bring sugar with 1/2 cup of water in a saucepan to pearl stage. Add bean puree and ground almonds to sugar mixture, bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let it cool a little. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix very fast so the yolks don’t coagulate. Butter and line tart tins or muffin tins with a pastry of your choice. Fill with the bean mixture about half full. If using individual tins place them on a baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes, being careful not to burn. Remove from tins and cool. Makes about 20-24.

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