Pastel de nata: the oven at maximum and black spots on top
Portuguese custard tarts are recognised by one thing: scorched, almost black spots across the custard. Portuguese bakeries use ovens far hotter than a domestic one, so at home you have to extract everything your oven has — 250 °C and the top shelf. The custard itself is simple: a cooked pastry cream infused with a cinnamon stick and lemon peel, poured into shells made from puff pastry rolled into a log and stretched with a thumb.
Your own work in that: 30 min.
- Custard 30 min
- Chilling the custard 60 min
- Shells 30 min
- Baking 15 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneBoil a syrup and warm the milk
Boil the sugar with the water, cinnamon stick and strips of lemon peel for 3 minutes, to a thin syrup — about 10 minutes including bringing it to the boil. Set aside 4 tablespoons of the cold milk and warm the rest separately with the cream. Take the peel from the yellow part only — the white pith is bitter and shows immediately in this custard.
Ingredients: 250 ml whole milk · 150 ml cream, 30 % · 180 g sugar · 80 ml water · 35 g plain flour · 6 pcs egg yolks · 1 pcs cinnamon stick · 1 pcs lemon peel · 1 pinch salt
Syrup with cinnamon and peel, three minutesCook the custard base
Slake the flour smooth in the reserved cold milk, whisk it into the hot milk and cream and cook, whisking, 3–5 minutes, until thickened. Pour in the hot syrup in a thin stream, whisking constantly, and remove the cinnamon and peel.
Whisk in the yolks and sieve
Cool the mixture to lukewarm, about 15 minutes (this matters), then whisk in the yolks. Strain it through a sieve into a jug — the sieve catches any threads of set egg and stray peel. Refrigerate an hour, with film on the surface.
TipYolks whisked into a hot mixture set instantly and cannot be strained out entirely — they leave specks that make the custard grainy rather than silky.
Roll the puff pastry into a log
Unroll the sheet of puff pastry and roll it up tightly into a log, starting from a short end, like a Swiss roll — the log will be about 24 cm long. Cut it into 12 discs of 2 cm. That rolling creates a spiral of layers — it is what makes the shell laminate outwards in the oven, as in the original.
Ingredients: 300 g puff pastry · 2 tbsp flour for dusting · 15 g butter
A tight log, discs two centimetres thickStretch the discs with your thumb
Start heating the oven now (see the next step) — it needs 20–30 minutes to reach full heat. Set each disc cut side up in a greased hole of a muffin tin. Wet your thumb and press the pastry outwards from the centre until it lines the hole and stands 2 mm above the rim. It should be thin, almost translucent at the base.
TipA wet thumb does not stick and lets you stretch the pastry genuinely thin. A rolling pin will not work here — it would flatten the spiral of layers that is the whole point.
A wet thumb, pastry almost translucentFill and bake at maximum
The oven, with a tray inside, should now be at 250 °C (or its maximum). Fill the shells three quarters full and bake on the top shelf 12–15 minutes, until the custard puffs and blisters with black spots and the pastry is golden.
Ingredients: 1 tsp ground cinnamon · 1 tbsp icing sugar
TipThe black spots are not a mistake but the signature of pastel de nata. If they have not appeared after fifteen minutes, switch on the <b>grill for the last 2 minutes</b> — the simplest solution in a domestic oven.
Custard puffed, spots almost black
Before you start
Eat them the same day
Pastéis de nata are best warm, within the hour. After that the pastry absorbs moisture from the custard and loses its crispness. In Lisbon they are often eaten standing at the counter, with coffee.
Serving
They are dusted with cinnamon and icing sugar at the table, never before baking. Portuguese cafés keep shakers of both on the counter so everyone adds their own.
The pastry
Bought all-butter puff pastry gives a very good result and saves two hours. Margarine pastry is noticeably worse — in a bake this simple, the taste of the fat in the shell is immediately apparent.
Custard in advance
The custard keeps two days in the fridge with film on its surface. The shells can be shaped and frozen in the tin. Baking then takes a quarter of an hour and can be done on demand.
