Portuguese Custard Tarts

I am lucky enough to live a short walk away from the most wonderful bakers, Sugardough* in Hove. I go there for the best fresh bread and also for their Portuguese Custard Tarts, which are (and this is no exaggeration) the best I have ever tasted. They are so delicious that until now I have never ever considered trying to make my own: surely it would only send me headlong into disappointment. Well, that was up until I came across Mónica Pinto and her truly inspirational blog Pratos e Travessas. Monica is one seriously talented lady: a food photographer and stylist by trade, but also an amazing cook and writer. Her blog, I can tell you, is very addictive and her recipes – well they are just crying out to be tried. So I have decide to conquer my fear and bake a batch of Portuguese Custard Tarts following Mónica’s recipe. Surely being able to produce the most delicate, crumbly, creamy and delicious Portuguese Custard Tarts is a life skill worth striving for. Don’t you agree?

Portuguese Custard Tarts: makes 12

Ingredients
450 g puff pastry
For the filling:
500ml single cream
200 g caster sugar
8 egg yolks (free range chickens)
2 tbs all purpose flour, not self rising
A piece of lemon peel

Preparation:
Roll the puff pastry thinly, and cut circles slightly bigger than the cupcake tins border.

Line each tin with 1 circle of pastry (you don´t need to butter the tins, the fat in the pastry is enough). And cut the excess, passing the blade of a knife around the border of the tins.

To make the custard, mix all the ingredients very well with a whisker and take to the heat, whisking all the time until it comes to a boil and thickens. Let it cool until warm, cover the top of the custard with clingfilm to stop it forming a skin.

Preheat the oven to 260º, maximum of gas oven.

Fill the pastry lined tins with the custard almost to the top and bake for 15 minutes until dark brown. Don´t forget to watch them because ovens differ a lot.

Remove from the oven, let them cool a bit, unmold with the help of a knife and dust the Pastéis de nata with icing sugar or, , with lots of cinnamon.

* Sugardough can be found at 12 Victoria Terrace, Kingway, Hove, BN3 2WB.

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