Portuguese Egg Tarts–Pastel De Nata (葡式蛋挞）

INTRODUCTION

After the preparation of Hong Kong short crust pastry egg tarts, I thought it might be good that I tried out the infamous Portuguese egg tarts as well.

As in the case of the Hong Kong short crust pastry egg tarts, this is a custard tart but usually prepared using puff pastry. In order for commercial puff pastry to become crispy, it needs to be baked under high temperature. Resulted from baking under high temperature, the top part of the custard will appear to have black patches on top of the custard that create a distinction with other custard tarts.

Per Wikipedia,

“Portuguese egg tarts evolved from “pastel de nata“, a traditional Portuguese custard pastry that consists of a crème brûlée-like custard caramelized in a crust, as created over 200 years ago by Catholic Sisters at Jerónimos Monastery (Portuguese: Mosteiro dos Jerónimos) atBelém in Lisbon.Casa Pastéis de Belém was the first pastry shop outside of the convent to sell this pastry in 1837. It is now a popular pastry in many pastry shops around the world owned by Portuguese descendants.The simple recipe has had various alterations in the Portuguese pastelarias (pastry shops) and padarias (bakeries), in the shape of the pastry cup and the filling. Some prefer the cream slightly “curdled” to give it a rustic appearance and unusual texture. “(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_tart)

I have prepared this using my homemade puff pastry, the same pastry I used for the preparation of the croissants. Technically, it is slightly different since commercial puff pastry mostly do not have sugar in the pastry and can withstand baking at higher temperature. If you are interested to read more about homemade puff pastry, you can refer to this post: Home Made Croissants (家居自制牛角包）

In my humble opinion, preparing this is much simpler than the Hong Kong Egg tarts since one do not really need to concern about evenness of the custard surface and a bit burnt is acceptable…

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: About 10 Portuguese egg tarts

About 300 grams of puff pastry (either homemade or store bought. thawed if frozen) – not in picture
150 grams of heavy cream
75 grams of fresh milk
45 grams of castor sugar
15 grams of condensed milk
8 grams of corn starch
3 egg yolks

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Divide the frozen puff pastry equally into 1o portions. Place one portion on the tarts mould. Use your hand to press the dough against the sides and make it as even as possible. (In this illustration, I am using homemade puff pastry and if you are using commercial bought puff pastry, you can refer HERE on how to prepare the tart mould.

Heat the milk and sugar in a microwave until boiling (about 1-2 minutes). If you do not have microwave, you can heat the milk and sugar over the stove until the sugar dissolves and milk is boiling hot.

In another mixing bowl, put heavy cream, egg yolk, corn flour and condensed milk. Use a hand whisk to whisk until well combined. Pour the hot milk to the custard mixture, stir until well mixed. Sift the mixture into another container.

Pour the custard mixture to the puff pastry shells. Place the puff pastry shells inside the pre-heated oven. Reduce the temperature to 200 degree Celsius. Bake the tarts for 20-25 minutes or until the custard is set.

CONCLUSION

If you are using commercial puff pastry to prepare these Portuguese egg tarts, it is a rather simple bake. Do give it a try and let me know if it works for you.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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