Viseu Bean Pastry
A scalloped oval pastry with a moist white-bean and yolk filling.
- Origin
- Viseu · Beira Alta
- Region
- Viseu
- Season
- Year-round; common at celebrations and as a gift
Pastel de Feijão de Viseu is a small scalloped oval pastry, roughly 10 by 5 centimetres, with golden laminated dough surrounding an open filling of white beans, yolks and sugar. A light dusting of icing sugar finishes the surface.
The beans are cooked, puréed and added to sugar syrup with yolks to form a soft moist cream. In contrast, the pastry is folded with margarine through several turns, rolled thin, cut and baked until crisp.
- wheat flour
- white beans
- egg yolks
- sugar
- margarine
- salt
- water
- icing sugar
A sweet, soft, moist filling with gentle yolk flavour against crisp laminated pastry.
Its scalloped outline, oval form and open filling distinguish it from closed bean pastries elsewhere.
At cafés and pastry shops in Viseu, sold singly or in gift boxes.
Espresso, tea, late-harvest Dão wine or sparkling wine.
Its abundant yolk and sugar resemble convent recipes, but there is no evidence of that origin. The known story begins in the mid-20th century at the now-closed Pastelaria Santos on Viseu's Rua Formosa. A former employee, Senhor João, preserved its metal moulds and know-how and continued production in a family business.
Sources: tradicional.dgadr.gov.pt
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