Portugal- Portuguese Custard Tarts

First of all:

Sorry this a little late again but I had something very important to pick up on the day I was meant to be writing in the form of GCSE results and spent the rest of the day talking to family on the phone and getting my nails done!!!! 

A little history:

Egg custard tarts (or Pastel De Nata) was created in the 18th century by Catholic Monks in the Jerónimos Monastery. The monastery would create large amounts of eggs and wouldn't know what to do with the egg yolks, so they came up with the clever idea of making pudding and so the egg custard tart was born!!! 

Ingredients:

• 300 grams of shop brought pastry 
• 120 grams of caster sugar 
• 2 medium egg yolks and one egg white (that means you have to separate the eggs ewwwww.....!)
• 20 grams of cornflour
• Pinch of salt
• 350 milliliters of full fat milk
• 1/2 a vanilla pod 
• 1 cinnamon pod
• 40 grams of unsalted butter
• flour for dusting
• butter for greasing

Method:

1. To make the custard, whisk 60 grams of sugar, the egg yolks, corn flour and salt altogether in a bowl until combined and nice and smooth then put to one side. Put the milk in a deep saucepan with the cinnamon stick (if you snap this in half you get more of the flavor) and the vanilla pod, bring up to the boil and then remove from the heat. Add a quarter of the milk to the egg mixture, whisk as you add. Then return the mixture to the pan of milk.

2. Put the pan back on a gentle heat and cook, making you are stiring all the time, until the custard becomes yummy and thick. Then take off the heat immedtaly and beat for a one minutes to get rid of any lumps, then pass the mixture through a sieve, then stir in the butter until melted, then cut out a circle of baking paper and put on top of the custard to stop a skin forming and leave to cool completly.

3. Lightly butter a 12 muffin hole tin and put to one side. Dust your work surface with flour and flour the rolling pin, take your pastry and roll it out to 20 cm by 30 cm, then roll into a Swiss roll and cut into four pieces, then cut each piece into three pieces and roll out into a disk and pop into the tin. Then chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, this means you can also chill for 30 minutes with your chosen beverage and biscuit!

4. Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line the pastry with baking paper and then fill with baking beans (or rice or pasta if you don't have them). Bake blind for 8-10 minutes and then remove the pastry and pop back into the oven so they can dry for a couple of minutes. Set the pastry aside to cool and reduce the oven temperature to 160 degrees Celsius.

5. Whisk the egg white in a clean, dry bowl until the egg white is still peaks, then gradually whisk in 50 grams of caster sugar. Then gently fold the custard into the egg whites and then add the custard to the pastry cases, you should add about three quarters of the mixture. Then bake for 25 minutes or until the custard is risen like a cloud and the pastry is cooked and more golden then a golden egg from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

These are so good and also got huge praise, these are so simple to make but also deliver wow factor! Dust with a little icing sugar before serving these hot or cold, if you don't like cinnamon then leave it out and that can be applied to the vanilla.


Next time I will be heading to Italy. I will be making  pizza, so time to release your inner Italian! I will also do a top ten list of things that I have to have when I cook and you may be surprised what I have on the list!


Thanks for reading!!! :)