Portuguese Custard Tarts Recipe | Pace Farm Eggs

Portuguese Custard Tarts

Crispy, flaky with a creamy, rich egg-custard centre… say hello to your next Pastéis de Nata.

Finally, the taste of Portugal is yours to re-create at home. A modern take on the classic Portuguese custard tart, this recipe is fast-tracked a little as it doesn’t require you to make your pastry.

Of course, Portugal is famous for the original recipe, but these are certainly hit the mark with authentic flavour. However these perfect little snacks are best eaten warm on the day they’re made, so you’ll just have to continue to whip up a fresh batch, daily.

Prep:

30 mins

Cooking:

25 mins

Serves:

18

Makes:

18

Portuguese custard tarts on a plate

Ingredients

Custard filling

  • 300ml pure cream
  • 300ml milk
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 2 tablespoons cornflour (see tip)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
  • 75g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
  • 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Pastry

  • 2 sheets puff pastry, just thawed

Method

Custard

  1. Combine cream and milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat and bring to just a simmer.
  2. Meanwhile, whisk yolks, cornflour, vanilla and sugar together in a large heatproof bowl. Gradually whisk in the hot cream mixture until smooth.
  3. Return mixture to cleaned saucepan and place over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until custard thickens and thickly coats the back of a spoon.
  4. Transfer to a glass bowl and cover surface with plastic wrap (to prevent a skin from forming). Set aside to cool then refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Assembling the tarts

  1. Preheat oven to 210°C/190°C fan-forced. Lightly spray 18 holes of two 12-hole, 1/3 cup (80ml) capacity muffin tins with oil.
  2. Cut each pastry sheet in half to form 2 long rectangles and place on top of each other to make 2 stacks. Starting from long side, roll up each pastry stack to form a log. Cut each log into 9 slices.
  3. Flatten each pastry disc out in the palm of your hand with your fingers until about 3mm thick. Press the pastry into the prepared muffin moulds and chill for 20 minutes (this helps to prevent pastry shrinkage).
  4. Stir lemon zest and cinnamon into custard. Spoon custard into pastry cases. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until custard is golden and pastry is golden and crisp. Set aside in tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Best served warm.

Notes

The tarts will look appetisingly puffy and risen while hot, but do collapse when cool – though will taste delicious just the same.

For a crispier pastry, we recommending using a metal muffin tin over one of the silicone types.

And to create a slightly thinner, Anglaise-style custard, simply reduce cornflour to 1 tbs.

 

If you are wanting to make these Portuguese Custard Tarts in bulk, we have these wholesale egg products to make it easier:

  • Dried egg yolk powder
  • Frozen egg yolk

Australian Eggs

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