Pasteis de Nata or Portuguese Custard Tarts as they are known in English are something I have been meaning to make for a while now. Whilst I have never eaten one in Portugal I have devoured my fair share of the Spanish equivalent – Pastel de Nata when I lived in Catalunya. My hens are laying 6 eggs a day at the moment so the time was right for my first try at Pasteis de Nata.
I have simplified the recipe by using ready made Puff Pastry. But feel free to make your own pastry and then just follow the assembly instructions. This recipe makes 24 tarts but it could easily be halved.
Pasteis de Nata Portuguese Custard Tarts
Ingredients
2 x 450g/8oz packs of ready made puff pastry (I used fresh rather than frozen)
350ml full fat milk
300g caster sugar
75g water
50g plain flour
6 large egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Peel of 1 lemon cut into strips
1 cinnamon stick
Ground cinnamon or icing sugar for dusting
Method
Preheat your oven to 290c fan and lightly grease a 12 cup deep muffin tin with oil not butter. Butter will burn in the oven at such a high temperature so you need to use a vegetable, sunflower or rapeseed oil. I used a spray sunflower oil.
Put the sugar, water, vanilla extract, lemon strips and cinnamon stick into a 
saucepan and heat up to 100c. You’ll need a sugar/jam thermometer or a temperature probe to check. Resist the urge to stir the mixture too much. Once it has reached 100c set aside to cool.
In another saucepan whisk together the milk, flour and salt and heat gently until everything is combined and the milk has thickened. Set aside to cool for about 10 minutes.
Whilst everything is cooling you can make the pastry shells.
If you have 2 muffin trays you can cook both together. I only have one tray so I 
cooked in two batches so here are the instructions for making the first 12 pastry shells.
Roll one packet of puff pastry into a thin rectangle about the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut the sheet in half and place the sheets on top of each other and lightly roll them together. From the short end of the pastry, tightly roll it up into a log. Now cut the puff pastry log into 12 evenly sized pieces and drop on piece into each hole of the muffin tin.
Damped your thumb and fore fingers with a drop of water and push the pastry 
down into the bottom of the tin and then up the sides of the hole until you reach the top of the tin. This sounds trickier than it is to do. Work your way around the tin until all 12 pastry shells are moulded.
Whisk the egg yolks into the milk mixture until completely combined.
Remove the cinnamon and lemon from the sugar syrup and stir the syrup into the milk mixture.
Finally strain the finished custard into a jug using a sieve.
Pour the custard into each shell until it is about 3/4 full.
Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until they are golden brown.
You should have half your custard left in the jug for your second batch.
If you only wish to make 12 tarts, simply half the recipe and only use one pack of pastry.
Remove the tarts from oven and dust with ground cinnamon or icing sugar.
Pasteis de Nata are best served warm and fresh, with a big mug of coffee.
