Portuguese custard tarts - pastéis de nata

For my second puff pastry recipe I decided to make these Portuguese custard tarts. Now, I have never been to Portugal, nor have I tried any shop-bought versions of these, so I can’t advise as to whether this is the most authentic recipe, or if it tastes anything like the original.

I can, however, assure you that these are golden custardy mouthfuls of deliciousness, and they are the best thing to cheer up yet another grey January day.

Things I have learnt from making these custard tarts:

When rolling out the circles of puff pastry, work from the centre outwards with the lightest pressure on the rolling pin. The spirals of dough spread really easily so they can quickly become too big (see next point!).

Don’t make the circles of dough too big. You will end up with wiggly edges like mine. I was trying to make sure the pastry was really thin, but next time I would roll them out no bigger than 10cm.

 

Portuguese custard tarts:
(adapted from this recipe on the Not Quite Nigella blog)

250g puff pastry
2 egg yolks
1 whole egg
115g sugar
2 tablespoons cornflour
230ml double cream
170ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the custard:

• Put the egg, egg yolks, sugar and cornflour into a mixing bowl and beat with fork until well combined
• Heat the milk and cream in a saucepan until you begin to see steam rising from the surface
• Pour the warm liquid onto the egg mixture whilst whisking constantly with a balloon whisk to prevent it turning into scrambled eggs
• Pour this mixture back into the saucepan and continue to heat, stirring all the time
• When the mixture has thickened to a good custardy consistency, take it off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract
• Put the custard into a bowl and cover the surface with clingfilm to prevent a skin forming
• Leave to cool to room temperature, and then place in the fridge until you are ready to make the tarts

To assemble the tarts:

• Lightly butter a 12 hole muffin tin and preheat the oven to 200°C
• Roll out the puff pastry to a large square
• Cut the pastry in half with a sharp knife then place the two halves on top of each other 

• Roll up the dough from the short end to form a log shape

• Mark 12 sections on the log and cut rounds from the dough

• Roll out each of the rounds to form a 10cm circle

• Place these circles into each of the muffin tin holes, making sure you don’t trap any air bubbles under the base, and gently press into the tin
• Spoon the cooled custard mixture into each of the pastry cases
• Place the tarts in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes until they have dark brown caramelised spots appearing on the surface, and the pastry is well cooked
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool

Serve these the day that they are made, as the pastry will not be as crisp the following day