Portuguese Egg Custard Tarts Recipe (2024)

The original recipe is a bit more complicated. The filling is normally made with heavy cream, sugar, lemon peel and eggs. The puff pastry should be pressed in a circular motion, so as to "climb" the walls of the mold which then can be 3/4 filled with the cream mixture. Once fully cooked they are normally dusted with a mixture of cinnamon and confectioners sugar, but very lightly. Hope it helps, as I bake these (pasteis de nata) quite often.

When you indicate "transfer tarts to the cookie sheets", do you mean individually, or rather "place muffin tins on cookie sheets"?

Place the muffin tins on the cookie sheets.

This is a recipe that needs a video for handling the puff pastry. I'm trying to visualize the many meanings of the word "roll." So after you roll the 18" square of puff pastry into a log and refrigerate it, then in step 4 you roll it again into 1" diameter? Seems like others figured it out.

I noted people asking for a good video. There is one on YouTube.https://youtu.be/64UE-34q2TM

One really has to go to Belém for these at their best. It's worth the trip. One thing missing from this recipe is the powdered sugar to sprinkle on top (as they do in Portugal.) Pasteis are decadent yet simple and extraordinarily delicious and addictive. I agree that this recipe should have a video version for more clarity.

Place the muffin tins containing the tarts on the sheets. It'd be pretty messy trying to transfer the individual tarts and the shells would probably collapse.

Step 10 says to "pop out tarts to continue cooling," so I'm guessing you put the pans on the cookie sheets.

It is very important that you constantly whisk the hot milk when adding the flour mixture. This helps blend and cook the flour so you don't taste the flour. Constantly beat the egg yolks and add the hot milk just a little to start so you don't get scrambled eggs. Then gradually add the rest of the milk mixture. Then using the same process add your sugar mixture. Otherwise your eggs could desperate from the mixture. It's a fun recipe!

I find when I make a larger version of anything it needs to be cooked at a lower temperature in addition to giving it extra time so that it cooks through. That way, when the outside is finished the interior will be finished also. Conversely, if I make a miniature version I raise the temperature in addition to cutting time.

The 5th season of British baking made these on pastry week technical. I made the puff pastry from scratch, used muffin top tins and added powdered sugar to the cinnamon at end. I left in muffin tins and put on hot cookie sheet. Amazingly Delicious.

I made a "half-recipe" of this, because I had one sheet of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry, which is about 9" square. It worked pretty well rolling the barely thawed sheet into the tubular "roll" (like the roll one does for icebox cookies). Once that is a bit chilled, roll it to make it smaller in diameter, so it is about 12 inches long and can be cut into the 12 one-inch pieces, which, in turn, can be rolled into flat circles of about 2-3/4" to fit into the mini-muffin tin.

Hi Melissa. I follow your work. Great recipes

Made these yesterday to take on a picnic. They were a hit and traveled well. Forgot to sprinkle on the cinnamon, which would have added more flavor.For clarification of the 'rolling' process. Roll the dough into an 18 inch square, then roll it up into a little log and refrigerate (1). You may or may not need to roll out the log so it's a little thinner (4). Then, slice the log (4) and these circles become the filling for the muffin pan (5).

Watch the video Bill shared in the comments. For Step 4 do NOT use a rolling pin, you are instead rolling the entire log in log form (do NOT flatten) and that is how the 1" diameter makes sense -- you maintain the log shape. Once you cut the log in Step 5 you turn each cut on its side (should be seeing a circle) and then roll it out with a rolling pin.

My custard filling puffed up a little too much when baking. Taste was fantastic, but the appearance wasn’t great. It helped when I added less filling to the tins and made sure the bottom of the tart wasn’t too rolled out too thick. It seems to push the custard filling upwards?I cooked for too long and my heat was too high, so my milk mixture was too thick. Custard tasted fine but just careful on this step! Thinned out with milk, but skipped the sieve part.

I’m not sure why the custard puffed up during the baking. The tarts tasted fine but I wasn’t thrilled by the appearance (I manually pressed them down). Does it have something to do with my halving the recipe? Or was the temperature too high or low?

I would not flavor with cinnamon but with a bit of lemon zest.

Would not recommend. Does not taste or resemble authentic Natas. Flavor wasn’t horrible, but not like the real thing.

I made these (not this recipe) recently. I made and refrigerated the custard the night before. It was thick enough to spoon into the pastry shells which helps prevent soggy bottoms and the custard spilling out of the shells during baking.

So do you have to bake two batches to get to 48? Does it say that somewhere?

On occasion of having 6 egg yolks, I made this custard and cooked it alone in a 8" square glass pan in a water bath (bain marie) at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. I took this cooking plan from the other Baked Custard recipe I found in the "11 things to do with egg yolks" Lovely!

I agree with Peggy. I’m confused by the instruction to roll the 18” log into a 1 inch diameter. Please clarify this.

Too much flour, no? My custard was very thick to pour into cups.

I made a "half-recipe" of this, because I had one sheet of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry, which is about 9" square. It worked pretty well rolling the barely thawed sheet into the tubular "roll" (like the roll one does for icebox cookies). Once that is a bit chilled, roll it to make it smaller in diameter, so it is about 12 inches long and can be cut into the 12 one-inch pieces, which, in turn, can be rolled into flat circles of about 2-3/4" to fit into the mini-muffin tin.

Tip... either a quick trip to Lisbon (hard, unfortunately due to Covid), or find a good Portuguese bakery. Try to get them when they’re still warm. Be sure to sprinkle cinnamon and powdered sugar on top. Yum!

The 5th season of British baking made these on pastry week technical. I made the puff pastry from scratch, used muffin top tins and added powdered sugar to the cinnamon at end. I left in muffin tins and put on hot cookie sheet. Amazingly Delicious.

I had these years ago when I was in Lisbon---they're one of the most delicious desserts I've ever had!

Made these yesterday to take on a picnic. They were a hit and traveled well. Forgot to sprinkle on the cinnamon, which would have added more flavor.For clarification of the 'rolling' process. Roll the dough into an 18 inch square, then roll it up into a little log and refrigerate (1). You may or may not need to roll out the log so it's a little thinner (4). Then, slice the log (4) and these circles become the filling for the muffin pan (5).