Pastel de Nata are a traditional egg tart baked in Portugal. Similar tarts can be found in England, Hong Kong & across Asia, but none has the delicious puff pastry casing like Pastel de Nata. This recipe will make 24 egg tarts – which sounds like a lot – but they are delicious hot or cold and they go very quickly!
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons of cornstarch
- 4 teaspoons of Vanilla Essence
- 1 ¾ cup white sugar
- 2 cups milk
- 12 egg yolks
- 2 (17.5 ounce) package frozen puff pastry, thawed
Method
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C.).
- Lightly grease two 12 cup cake tins
- Roll the thawed puff pastry and cut into squares approximately the size of a coaster. (pic 1 below)
- Gently push the pastry squares into the cake tin cups – It doesn’t have to be neat. (pic 2 below)
- Place the egg yolks in a medium bowl and whisk them together – set aside.
- In a saucepan whisk the milk, cornstarch, sugar and vanilla together.
- Cook the milk mixture, stirring constantly, until it begins to thicken.- approximately 5 mins.
- Slowly whisk about 1/2 a cup of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolks. This measure does not have to be exact!
- Gradually add the egg yolk mixture back to remaining milk mixture in the saucepan, whisking constantly. Make sure you do not let it stick to the bottom.
- Cook the mixture, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes, or until thickened – you want it to be roughly the consistency of sour cream.
- Fill the pastry-lined muffin cups with the custard mixture (pic 3 below) and bake in a preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until the pastry crust is golden brown and filling is lightly browned on top. The egg custard will rise while in the oven and look like it’s going to overflow – don’t panic! It will deflate again when out of the oven.
- Serve and enjoy!
The tarts can be eaten hot or cold and last for about 3 days in an air-tight container.
