Portuguese Creme Tarts - Pastéis de Nata - Lisbon Day 4 - kvalilog_10

Name: Portuguese Creme Tarts - Pastéis de Nata - Lisbon Day 4 - kvalilog_10
Prep time: 25 min
Total time: 45 min

April 22, 2010

Prep 25 min Total 45 min

One of the most traditional cakes from Lisbon is their cream tart. It’s a very simple but incredibly tasteful cake. It’s no wonder it has become popular throughout the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV6rzGJUF7w

Ingredients

12 pcs
400 g puff pastry ( see my homemade recipe here )
butter, to lubricate the molds
flour (or corn flour), to lubricate the molds

cream filling

½ l whipping cream
3 eggs
150 g sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar (1 the beans of 1 pod)
2 tbsp corn starch
1 cinnamon stick

Directions

Custard

Mix all the ingredients into the cream in a pan.

Bring it gently to a simmer while stirring. Stir all the time.

Pour it into another container when it has thickened. It prevents burning and lumping in the hot pot while you prepare the dough.

Shape the bowls

Grease the mold and sprinkle it with flour so the tarts don’t stick when baking.

Cut the puff pastry into pieces that are approx. twice as big as your molds. Better too big than too small pieces. Nothing will go to waste anyway.

Push the pastry well into the mold so there are no air holes. Cut off the excess dough and store it.

Squeeze the cut-off dough into a balls and split it into approx. 1 oz (30 g) pieces.

Press the pieces into the mold until they are bowl-shaped like the others.

Assembly

Sieve the custard so there are no lumps and cinnamon pieces left in it.

Pour 50 ml (½ dl (3 tbsp))

custard

into each pastry bowl.

Baking

Bake 15 min at 400°F (200°C) until they are golden and the cream bumps upward.

Grill then for approx. 5 minutes until they get the characteristic dark spots.

Beware! They are addictive.

Notes

My cake mold has room for 12 pieces. Each shape is approx. 2 inches (5 cm) at the bottom and 3 inches (8 cm) at the top. They can accommodate a little bit less than 1/4 cup (1 dl (90 ml)).

Normally I use my own homemade pastry, but in the video I used a gluten-free puff pastry from Schaer. It’s not nearly as good, but it was necessary: -S