Pastel De Nata Portuguese Custard Tarts Recipes

PORTUGUESE CUSTARD TARTS - PASTEIS DE NATA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C.) Lightly grease 12 muffin cups and line bottom and sides with puff pastry.
• In a saucepan, combine milk, cornstarch, sugar and vanilla. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Place egg yolks in a medium bowl. Slowly whisk 1/2 cup of hot milk mixture into egg yolks. Gradually add egg yolk mixture back to remaining milk mixture, whisking constantly. Cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes, or until thickened. Remove vanilla bean.
• Fill pastry-lined muffin cups with mixture and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and filling is lightly browned on top

PORTUGUESE CUSTARD TARTS (PASTEIS DE NATA)

Steps:

• Combine flour, salt, and cold water in a bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon until dough just comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Dough should be sticky; adjust with more flour or water to achieve what's shown in the video.
• Transfer dough onto a well floured surface. Dust a little more flour over the top. Knead for a minute or two to form a round. Cover and let rest for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Roll dough into a square about 1/8 inch thick, dusting with flour as necessary; dough should still be sticky.
• Spread 1/3 of the butter over 2/3 of the square using a silicone spatula, leaving a 1/2 inch border. Flip the unbuttered side over the middle of the square and fold the opposite end over it like a letter. Straighten the edges as needed.
• Turn dough with a bench scraper to unstick it from the counter; dust with flour. Flip and sprinkle more flour on top. Roll dough into a 1/8-inch-thick rectangle, carefully stretching edges as needed. Spread another 1/3 of the butter over 2/3 of the dough. Fold into thirds. Transfer onto a lined baking sheet and freeze until butter is slightly chilled, about 10 minutes.
• Sprinkle dough with flour and roll into a square a little over 1/8 inch thick. Spread remaining butter over the dough, leaving a 1- to 1 1/2-inch border on the top edge. Dip your finger in water and lightly moisten the unbuttered edge. Roll dough into a log starting from the bottom edge. Dust with more flour and polish the ends as needed. Seal with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
• Combine sugar, 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon water, cinnamon, and lemon zest in a pot. Boil over medium heat, without stirring, until syrup reaches 210 to 215 degrees F (100 degrees C). Remove from heat.
• Preheat oven 550 degrees F (288 degrees C). Grease a 12-cup muffin tin.
• Whisk flour, salt, and cold milk together very thoroughly in a cold pot. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until milk thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for at least 10 minutes.
• Whisk egg yolks into the cooled milk. Add the sugar syrup and vanilla extract. Mix until combined. Strain custard into a glass measuring cup.
• Unwrap the dough and trim any uneven bits on the ends. Score log into 12 even pieces using a knife; cut through.
• Place a piece of dough in each muffin cup. Dip your thumb lightly in some cold water. Press thumb into the center of the swirl; push dough against the bottom and up the sides of the cup until it reaches least 1/8 inch past the top. Fill each cup 3/4 of the way with custard.
• Bake in the preheated oven until the pastry is browned and bubbly, and the tops start to blister and caramelize, about 12 minutes. Cool tarts briefly and serve warm.

PASTéIS DE NATA (PORTUGUESE CUSTARD TARTS)

Steps:

• Using a pastry brush, grease eight individual pastry tins generously with the melted butter, then chill in the fridge. Put the butter between two sheets of baking parchment, then bash and roll into a large rectangle roughly the thickness of a £1 coin. In a large bowl, mix the flour with 150ml water and a pinch of salt using a wooden spoon. Tip the dough onto a clean surface and knead for 5 mins until smooth.
• Shape the dough into a rough rectangle, cover with cling film and rest in the fridge for 20 mins. If your butter is getting too soft, put it in the fridge to chill too. Roll the dough out into a large, thin rectangle at least twice the size of the butter. Put the butter in the middle of the dough, fold all the edges up over it to encase it, then fold the dough over itself in half.
• Roll out the dough to roughly half its original size, then fold in half, then half again to make a rectangle a quarter the size of the original. Repeat this process once more, flouring your work surface if you need to. Don't worry about being too precise here, or if the butter starts breaking through some of the layers. Cover and put the pastry in the fridge to rest for 20 mins.
• On a floured surface roll the chilled dough into a thin A3-sized rectangle, then roll it up lengthways into a tight sausage shape. Divide the pastry into three, the middle section will make your perfect looking tarts, then wrap and freeze the rest for another time. (It would also make delicious palmier biscuits if you roll it out and sprinkle with sugar.)
• Slice the pastry into 8 discs. Work the discs into the tins with your fingers, pressing and stretching them to fill the tins. If the layers start to come apart, press them back together. Chill while you make the custard.
• In a pan, warm 150ml milk with the cinnamon stick, lemon peel and half the butter until just simmering and the butter has melted. In a large bowl, sieve the cornflour and flour into the remaining milk and whisk to form a thin paste. Pour the warm milk mixture over the flour paste and leave to infuse for a few mins. Sieve the custard back into the pan, heat gently and keep stirring for 3-4 mins until it reaches the consistency of double cream. Take off the heat and blend in the remaining butter.
• Put the syrup ingredients in a frying pan and stir over a medium heat for 5 mins until you have a light, fragrant caramel. Take the pan off the heat and carefully pour in 100ml water. Return the pan to a low heat until the sugar has melted again into a syrup. Strain into a bowl.
• Slowly add half the syrup to the custard and whisk until completely blended. You can store the custard in the fridge from this point, but don't add the eggs until just before you are ready to cook the tarts. Heat your oven to 260C/240C fan/gas 8 or as high as your oven will go. Put a baking tray on the top shelf of the oven to heat up. Whisk the egg yolks in a small bowl, then incorporate into the custard. Pour the mixture into the pastry bases.
• Put the filled tin on the hot baking tray. Put the tray in the middle of the oven and bake for 5- 8 mins, or until the custard starts to puff up. Once the custard has puffed up, turn the oven onto its grill setting and transfer the tarts to the top shelf. Grill for 1-2 mins or until caramelised - the darker the better. Remove from the oven and brush with a little of the remaining syrup. Let the tarts cool slightly in the moulds before turning out onto a cooling rack.

JAMIE OLIVER'S PORTUGUESE CUSTARD TARTS

Steps:

• Begin by preparing pastry shells.
• Lay puff pastries out flat, sprinkle with cinnamon and lightly rub it in to spread out and coat surface evenly.
• Roll up both pastry sheets and cut each into 6 even pieces.
• Stand up each piece on it's end and flatten down with fingers into disc shape, place disc's in standard muffin pan.
• Using fingers, spread each piece into a cup shape using the pan as a mold.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes at 400°F in oven on top shelf.
• While they're baking prepare custard mix.
• In a medium sized bowl mix together eggs, sugar, vanilla, creme fraiche and zest from 1 orange.
• Shells should still be a little soft and slightly puffed out when they come out of the oven - using a spoon, push back the pastry into the mold and into its cup shape so it can hold the custard.
• Fill each shell almost to the top with custard mix.
• Put custard-filled pastry shells back into 400°F oven on top shelf and bake for 8-10 minutes.
• While tarts continue baking prepare caramel topping.
• Heat up a medium sized saucepan on the stove over medium-high heat.
• Add sugar and juice from 2 oranges.
• Use care and caution when making caramel - it is like molten lava. Only use metal utensils while working with caramel as it will ruin wooden spoons and plastic could melt.
• Continuously watching pot and stir occasionally to prevent burning, sugar will melt and bubble as it cooks.
• Caramel is ready once it turns a nice amber color and should be done around the same time the tarts are finished baking.
• Move tarts onto wire rack to cool. Using a spoon, drizzle caramel over top of each tart.

PASTEL DE NATA (PORTUGUESE CUSTARD TARTS)

Steps:

• Place an oven rack in the top third position and heat the oven to 525 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove a pastry log from the refrigerator and roll it back and forth on a lightly floured surface until it's about an inch in diameter and 16 inches long. Cut it into scant 3/4-inch pieces. Place 1 piece pastry dough, cut side down, in each well of a nonstick 12-cup mini-muffin pan.
• In a medium bowl, whisk the flour and 1/4 cup milk (60 ml) until smooth.
• In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix the flour, salt, and water until a soft, pillowy dough forms that pulls away from the side of the bowl, about 30 seconds.
• Have a small cup of water nearby. Dip your thumbs in the water, then straight down into the middle of the dough spiral. Flatten it against the bottom of the cup, then smooth the dough up the sides and create a raised lip about 1/8-inch above the pan. The pastry bottoms should be thinner than the tops. You do not want to have the ratio of the custard to filling off so try and make the bottoms thin enough without puncturing holes.
• Bring the sugar, cinnamon and water to a boil in a small saucepan and cook until an instant-read thermometer registers 220 degrees Fahrenheit. Do not stir.
• Generously flour your work surface and pat the dough into a 6-inch (15 cm) square using a pastry scraper. Flour the dough, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rest at room temperature for 15 minutes.
• Fill each cup 3/4 full with the cool custard. Custard will be thick so when you scoop it into pastry, smooth top slightly. Bake the pastries until the edges of the dough are frilled and brown, roughly 6 minutes. Switch to broil for an additional 4-5 minutes to get the signature caramelized dark spots on surface of pastel de nata.
• Meanwhile, in another small saucepan, scald the remaining 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup cream (240ml combined). Whisk the hot milk and cream into the flour mixture.
• Roll the dough into an 18-inch square. As you work, use the scraper to lift the dough to make sure the underside isn't sticking to your work surface.
• Remove from the oven and allow the tarts to cool a few minutes in the pan, then transfer to a rack and cool until just warm. Sprinkle the tarts generously with confectioners' sugar, then cinnamon and serve. Repeat with the remaining pastry and custard. These are best consumed the day they're made.
• Remove the cinnamon stick and then pour the sugar syrup in a thin stream into the hot milk-and-flour mixture, whisking briskly. Add the vanilla and stir for a minute until very warm but not hot. Add a small amount of the milk and flour mixture to the yolks. This will temper the yolks so you do not scramble them. Whisk in the yolks, strain the mixture into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside.
• Brush the excess flour off the top of the dough, trim any uneven edges and using a small offset spatula, dot and then spread the left 2/3 portion of the dough with a little less than 1/3 of the butter being careful to leave a 1 inch plain border around the edge of the dough.
• Return mixture to a stove top and heat up on low until mixture thickens or reaches 85 degrees Celcius in temperature (if you have a thermometer). Stir constantly to avoid clumps.
• Neatly fold the unbuttered right 1/3 of the dough (using the pastry scraper to loosen it if it sticks) over the rest of the dough. Brush off any excess flour, then fold over the left 1/3 of the dough. Starting from the top, pat down the dough with your hand to release any air bubbles, and then pinch the edges of the dough to seal. Brush off any excess flour.
• Poor custard back into bowl, cover with plastic wrap (place plastic directly on custard to avoid crust) and refrigerate until fully chilled, 2-3 hours or overnight.
• Turn the dough 90 degrees to the left so the fold is facing you. Lift the dough and flour the work surface. Once again roll it out to an 18-inch square, then dot the left 2/3 of the dough with 1/3 of the butter and smear it over the dough. Fold the dough as directed in steps 4 and 5.
• For the last rolling, turn the dough 90 degrees to the left and roll out the dough to an 18-by-21-inch rectangle, with the shorter side facing you. Spread the remaining butter over the entire surface of the dough.
• Using the spatula as an aid, lift the edge of dough closest to you and roll the dough away from you into a tight log, brushing the excess flour from the underside as you go. Trim the ends and cut the log in half. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours or preferably overnight. The pastry can be frozen for up to 3 months.