Pastel de Nata

Pastel de nata (Portuguese) pastéis de nata; Portuguese:  or pastel de Belém is a Portuguese egg custard tart pastry, optionally dusted with cinnamon. Outside Portugal, they are particularly popular in other parts of Western Europe, Asia and former Portuguese colonies, such as Brazil, Mozambique, Macau, Goa and East Timor. The Macanese pastel de nata has been adopted by KFC and is available in regions such as the mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand. In Indonesia, this pastry is especially popular in Kampung Tugu, Jakarta, a culturally Portuguese (Mardijker) enclave.

This is one of the many desserts, created by our in-house pastry chef on our wonderful Douro cruise, this coming May.

Ingredients

  • Puff pastry dough 6 oz
  • All-purpose flour: 1.5 oz
  • Salt: 1/4 tsp
  • Milk: ¾ of a cup
  • Light brown sugar: 3.5 ozg
  • Water: 1.5 fl oz
  • Egg yolks: 3
  • Vanilla extract: 1/2 tsp
  • Cinnamon stick or cinnamon powder: 1 tsp plus dusting on top
  • Grated lemon zest: 1 tsp

Instructions

  1. Pour the sugar into a saucepan, add the lemon zest, water, cinnamon stick, and vanilla extract. Bring to the boil whilst stirring. Approximately 3-4 minutes, remove it from the heat and let sit.
  2. Whisk the flour and half of the milk with a until no smooth Add a pinch of salt, and the remaining milk and mix well.
  3. Put the mixture on medium heat and constantly stir as you bring it to the boil. Remove from the heat when the mixture starts to thicken. Let it cool for 30 minutes.
  4. Whilst the mixture is cooling, prepare pastry shells. Roll all the pastry dough into a square shape and cut it in half. Place one half on top of the other and cut into 6 equal squares.
  5. Place the cut dough pieces into the muffin tin and put it in the fridge.
  6. Preheat the oven to 550 F degrees or highest setting.
  7. Take the cooled milk mixture and add the sugar mixture and 3 egg yolks and mix well.
  8. Pour the mixture into the dough in the muffin pan.
  9. Bake pastel de nata for about 10 minutes or until the top of the creamy filling gets golden brown.
  10. Serve warm with powdered sugar and some ground cinnamon on the top.