Globecooking recipe : Pasteis de Nata (Portugal)

Pasteis de Nata are little Portuguese custard tarts and they are absolutely divine. It's funny because the recipe was in a Portuguese-themed Kitchen Trotter box several months ago and I never quite got round to making them because they didn't look particularly appealing. Then I saw them being made on Nigel Slater's Eating Together and it piqued my interest.

I had fun making them with Pierre and when I took them out of the oven, I just had time to take a photo before they disappeared in literally five minutes. Pierre still had his mouth full and flakes of pastry around his mouth when he asked if I could make them again ! I certainly will though, they were lovely.

Pasteis de Nata

ingredients :

1 pack puff pastry

5 eggs

200g sugar

35g flour

500ml milk

1 vanilla pod

a pinch of salt

butter for greasing

Preheat the oven at 210°.

Cut the vanilla pod in half and scrape out the seeds.

Put the milk in a saucepan with the vanilla seeds and pod and bring to the boil. Once it has thickened, turn off the heat, leave to infuse for a few minutes and remove the vanilla pod.

Put the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl and mix.

Pour the boiled milk into the bowl and whisk to remove lumps.

Add one whole egg.

Pour in four egg yolks and whisk vigorously.

Roll the puff pastry into a long sausage, pressing down firmly.

Chop into 2cm pieces.

We had two authentic pasteis de nata moulds in the Kitchen Trotter box but you could just put them straight into a bun tin or muffin tin.

Grease the moulds/bun tin.

Take one piece of pastry and use your thumbs to press it into the form of the mould.

Remove and put into the bun tin holes.

Fill with the custard mixture.

Waste not, want not ! I poured the remaining custard mixture into ramekins and put them in the oven too.

Bake at 210° for 15 minutes and finish under a hot grill for 5 minutes.

They are utterly scrumptious and actually very simple to make.

I left the baked custard for an extra 10 minutes and that was rather lovely too.

It's a shame my attempt to use up the leftover egg whites was less successful, but that's for another blogpost !

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Fancy trying some more Portuguese delights? How about Bacalhau a bras, Orange Tart, Toucinho Do Ceu or

Squid Salad?