Pasteis de Nata – Portuguese Custards

Posted on October 25, 2007
Filed Under Food

Do I have a treat for Algarve Buzz readers…literally, this is an exciting post, where I share a little history and recipe of one of the most famous Portuguese deserts of all - Pasteis de Nata “Portuguese Custard Tarts”.

The original recipe for Pasteis de Nata were invented by two Catholic sisters in the convent at the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos and called Pasteis de Belem, since then the secret recipe has been heavily guarded. Around 1837, clerics from the monetary, set up Casa Pastéis de Belém, the first shop to sell the pasteis, in order to raise money for the monastery that took centuries to build and today is an UNESCO heritage site. At the time the monetary and shop were easily accessible by ship, allowing tourists to quickly become familiar with Pasteis de Belem, and the news spread quickly.

Pasties de nata custard

Today, Pasteis de Belem are more commonly known around the country as Pasteis de Nata, and only the original Pasteis de Belem carry the name. The original shop also remains standing today and the Pasteis de Belem are still said to be the best. This is definitely a Lisbon must see, and a Portuguese must taste at good pastry shops across the country.

If you can’t get to Lisbon - the next best thing is to make them at home. I haven’t robbed the vaults at the monastery to get the recipe, but I’ve made these for friends over the years and at the end of our coffee, the only thing left on the plate is cinnamon dust…so confident you’ll enjoy them.

Pasteis de Nata
Source: own ~ makes 12
Difficulty: easier than it looks and very rewarding

Prepared puff pasty – defrosted but kept cold
1 ¾ cups whole milk
¼ cup cream
4 egg yolks
3 Tbsp white sugar
Pinch salt
2 Tbsp Plain flour
½ cinnamon stick
2 strips lemon peel
½ tsp vanilla extract

Pasties de Nata custard

Pastry Cream Instructions

In a sauce pan add milk, cream, egg yolks, sugar, salt, flour mix well with a whisk to ensure all the ingredients are well combined, do not turn heat on yet.

Once all ingredients are combined and there are no lumps of sugar or flour add cinnamon stick, lemon peel and vanilla.

Turn heat on to low stirring continuously and gently with whisk. *Note it’s very important to heat the milk slowly, if the milk is heated too quickly, egg yolks could coagulate like scrambled eggs and ruin the consistency of the custard.

Continue stirring until it cream becomes quite thick and resembles a rich pudding. Watch for thickening around the edges of the pan, you want a really smooth cream so make certain to get in the sides and bottom edges of the pan.

Let cool completely. When cooled, remove cinnamon stick and lemon peel.

To avoid milk skin from forming on custard you can place parchment paper on top of warm custard and it will lift out easily when you go to use it to fill puff pasty shells.

Preparing Pastry Shells

Preheat oven to ~~225F (107C)~~ [update: 300 F (148C)]

Roll out cold puff pastry dough with pin on floured surface, until 1/4 cm thick.

Once rolled out thin, dusk off excess flour and begin rolling puff pastry like a long cigar. Roll pastry snugly but not tight, just enough to avoid a lot of space or air pockets in roll.

Place pastry roll length wise and cut in 4cm lengths

Then take each cut piece in hand and push down center of roll to meet center of opposite side, gently press pastry with fingers to spread out dough to create what will feel like half of a hallow pastry ball. Work in circular pattern and pastry will start to thin and from a cup shape. If dough gets sticky use a little flour to help it along. Finished shells should be about 1/4cm, thin but not enough to see your hand through. If you like puff pastry you can make the shells a little thicker, but a couple of tries of the finished version will let you know your preference.

Place pastry in muffin tray, and spread out to sides but don’t stretch dough upward, just gently press against side of muffin tin to ensure it won’t shrink too much when baking.

When all pastry shells are ready fill with pastry cream, do not fill to top. Fill to ¾ or a bit more but leaving 1- 1.5cm at top of pastry.

Place custards in oven and bake for 15min, but keep eye on custards as some ovens can burn top quite quickly, while others don’t cook the pastry quickly enough. If pastry around sides looks deep golden colour pastries are done.

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Pasties de Nata custard

Pasteis de Nata can be served warm or cold, but highly recommended with a good sprinkle of cinnamon on top. The Portuguese are very particular about their Pasteis de Nata, some people must have theirs more burnt on top, others like them just golden. Regardless of how you have them they are a wonderful addition to an afternoon tea or coffee and can also accompany a nice port or Madeira. They also make for a great breakfast treat or even on their own as dessert, enjoy!

If you liked this article, you might also like these articles:

Pasteis de Bacalhau - Portuguese Codfish Cakes

Tarte de Natas - Portuguese Fresh Cream Cake

Cured Goat Cheese and Mango Puffs

Bolo Rei - Portuguese Christmas Cake

Comments

18 Responses to “Pasteis de Nata – Portuguese Custards”

Moses on October 26th, 2007 8:38 pm

Thanks for these little (deadly) treats … I couldn’t help myself, had 5 of them in a span of 20 minutes. Very difficult living with a woman who loves to bake delicious pastries daily (well almost daily).
eph on January 26th, 2008 6:19 pm

hello having tried pastis de natas i wonder if anyone has the recipe for tarte de nata (creme tart)
Eddie on February 4th, 2008 8:54 am

Hi Eph,

I have a few “tarte de natas” options, but have been playing with the idea of making this cream tarte a bit healthier, stay tuned I’m hope to have this out soon!
Jo on March 25th, 2008 4:12 pm

Hi, thank you so much for your recipe for Portuguese Custards - I have been searching for a while for one that is authentic. I am in England and we don’t use the “cup” measuring system you use. Do you have any idea what the ingredients would be in Grammes or Ounces?
Wanda on April 20th, 2008 7:01 pm

Hi Jo,
Canada converted its measures from Imperial to Metric quite a few years ago but, fortunately, I am old school. 1 cup = 8 ounces. Hope this helps.
Maria Alves on May 21st, 2008 3:09 pm

Please call me around 5:30PM in Conyers, GA at (770) 860-1220. I have very important questions on how to do the Pastel de Nata. I would like to know if someone in my area could do it for me. Thank You
Eddie on May 23rd, 2008 12:00 pm

Ola Maria,

Hope you found found someone close by, sounds like you were suffering from a craving ;o)

I’m now completely addicted to Pasteis de Belem, the original version of the Pastel de Nata, but their only available in Lisbon and the recipe is top secret! But absolutely delicious, if your in Lisbon you must go there and have them hot! Pure Heaven!

If you can’t get to Lisbon when the craving hits make them at home and have them warm with cinnamon ! Yum.
Tarte de Natas - Portuguese Fresh Cream Cake on June 3rd, 2008 4:45 pm

[...] cream in our desserts here in Portugal so hopefully no one confuses this with our more traditional ‘Pasties de Nata‘ that’s an entirely different animal to the Tarte de Nata (we really need to get more creative [...]
amalia on June 6th, 2008 2:44 am

225 is way too low to bake these. sorry. that does not work at all with puff pastry. very disappointed.
Eddie on June 6th, 2008 10:57 am

Hi Amalia,

Sorry to hear the recipe didn’t work out for you. I’ve tried baking them in the past around 275-300F and the filling didn’t respond well; so found a bit lower temperature worked better in my oven. Depending on your oven, you may want to try the above recipe again at 300F and set heat from the bottom, if you have the option. Thanks for sharing your experience, I’ve updated the temperature setting on the recipe.
Chef Morgan on June 6th, 2008 4:21 pm

You misspell “pasteis” sometimes in this recipe (for example, in the title of the recipe just above the ingredients list).

You sometimes spell it “pasties”. Does that mean we are supposed to form the dough around a stripper’s chest?

You’ve worked hard to make this page look professional. Please proofread a little more carefully.

Obrigado.
Eddie on June 6th, 2008 5:08 pm

Ola Chef Morgan,

You have busted me on my dyslexia, especially with “i” and “e” combinations! Add the back and forth from English to Portuguese and my ie, ei’s are a bit of a disaster…blush. But I’m working on it, thanks for letting us know, we’ll edit asap.

As far as the pastry dough on the stripper’s chest…there is a sex show here in the Algarve every summer, maybe there’s a post in there somewhere combining the two, food for thought! ;o)
norbayah Baba on June 9th, 2008 8:17 am

the belem cake looks like egg tart in my country. The recipe is almost the same only that we do not include the lemon peel and cinnamon stick.I must try the belem cake.
Helena Davis on August 8th, 2008 4:57 pm

Thought the recipe sounded lovely, must try, because I can’t eat them out. The reason being, battery eggs. I can buy free range eggs, chicken and chorizo in Portugal, I have learned the right words to look for on packets, but I have not so far partaken of any of the delicious looking cakes or desserts, because they will be batter eggs.
Does anyone know of a restaurant, cafe or pastalaria where you can eat such things containing free range eggs? or will I just have to make my own treats?
Thank you,
Eddie on August 8th, 2008 6:14 pm

Olá Helena, that’s a good question. I’m not sure of a restaurant or cafe that offer desserts with free range eggs but will certainly keep my eyes open and ask around…where in Portugal are you looking for this type of cafe/restaurant?
Helena Davis on August 9th, 2008 6:45 pm

Hi Eddie,
thanks for keeping your eyes ‘peeled.’
Armaca de Pera, Albufeira, Porches, Lagos, Silves, oh heck, anywhere on the Algarve actually.
My daughter who is a professional chef is visiting soon, so I think I will just try to con her into making that recipe for me.
helena
ps if anybody has a recipe for the legendary piri piri chicken, which I have never tasted since I arrived here because I would have to be sure it was free range chicken, then I would love to hear of it. I have bought the jar of appropriate sauce, can get the free range chicken, (no campo frangoo), all I need is the recipe.
david on November 20th, 2008 8:05 pm

these are incredibly more-ish…i have made them a few times and recently have been giving the tarts a ‘brulee’ topping: after baking and whilst still in the tins dust liberally with icing sugar and place under a medium grill - the sugar will melt and go golden but keep an eye on them so it doesnt go too brown. when they cool the tarts are just like creme brulees in a pastry case. purists may frown but it is a great alternative…
Patsy on December 27th, 2008 2:24 pm

My Lisbon-born husband has mentioned these before and if I can pull this off successfully, I’m fairly certain he’ll build a shrine in my honor. (Seriously, if Pasteis de Belem were another woman I’d be worried. No way I could compete with a love like that.) Thanks so much for providing this recipe!