Portuguese cuisine

Pastel de nata

Name: Pastel de nata
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: Portuguese cuisine
Ingredients: 400 g Puff pastry; 250 ml Milk; 250 ml Double cream; 200 g Sugar; 100 ml Water; 40 g Plain flour; 6 Egg yolks; 1 Cinnamon stick; 1 Lemon peel

Flaky pastry cases of custard baked in extreme heat until the surface blisters black.

Prep: 40 min
Cook: 15 min
Total: 55 min
Difficulty: Takes practice

Servings

Units

Ingredients

Puff pastry400 g
Milk250 ml
Double cream250 ml
Sugar200 g
Water100 ml
Plain flour40 g
Egg yolks6
Cinnamon stick1
Lemon peel1

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1
Boil the sugar and water to 100 °C and take it off. Separately bring the milk, cream, cinnamon and lemon peel to just below boiling.
10 min
2
Whisk the flour into a little cold milk until smooth and stir it into the hot mixture. Cook, stirring, to the thickness of soured cream.
6 min
3
Pour the hot syrup into the milk base in a thin stream, take it off the heat and stir in the yolks. Strain it and cool completely.
15 min
4
Roll the pastry into a tight log, cut two-centimetre discs and press each into a tin with your thumbs, taking the walls above the rim.
20 min
5
Heat the oven as high as it goes, at least 250 °C. Fill the cases three-quarters full and bake twelve to fifteen minutes, until the tops blister black.
15 min

About the dish

The scorch marks on a pastel are not a fault but the sign of correct baking. They come from an oven above 250 °C: the sugar on the custard caramelises while the pastry has time to laminate before the custard overheats.

The custard is cooked on the hob to thickness, not in the oven. In the oven it would curdle at that heat; made in advance, it only finishes.

The pastry is pressed into the tin with the thumbs, from the base up the sides, rather than rolled. The spiral of layers has to stay visible; the flaking depends on it.

Worth knowing

— The tins have to be thin metal. In ceramic or silicone the base will not bake through in so short a time.
— The custard must be cold and the pastry straight from the fridge. The difference in temperature is what gives the layers time to rise.
— Eat them warm, dusted with cinnamon and icing sugar. Within a day the pastry dampens; this is a one-day bake.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories: 290 kcal
Protein: 4 g
Fat: 16 g
Carbs: 33 g

Useful for this recipe

Oven Temperature Converter