Pastéis de Nata
Local name : Pastéis de nata
Portuguese custard tarts in puff pastry, baked at fierce heat until the tops blister and darken in patches.
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Total
- 45 min
- Serves
- 12
- Difficulty
- Hard
Method
- Heat the oven to 250 degrees with a tray inside. That starting heat does most of the work.
- Roll the pastry into a tight log and cut 2 cm rounds. Press each one into a muffin tin with your thumb, working it up the sides.
- Warm 400 ml of the milk with the cinnamon and lemon zest. Take it off the heat at the first steam.
- Slake the flour in the remaining 100 ml of milk, pour in the strained hot milk and thicken over low heat for 2 minutes.
- Off the heat, stir in the sugar, yolks and vanilla. Let it cool for 10 minutes.
- Fill the cases three quarters full and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the surface blisters almost black in places.
Those dark blisters are the point. Sugar at the surface caramelises before the custard sets, which gives the contrast bakeries in Lisbon aim for.
