Pasta de Nata

It has been a long time since my last post for two very good reasons.

The first is that we went to Portugal, and I will share that with you the recipe I brought back. The second is that my blog is being upgraded after 10 years for easier access and just to be prettier and more fun to use. Most of the recipes from past posts are already there a few are still being added. I hope the process will be complete in a few days.

Now back to the important part – food. This recipe is for Pastel de Nata. I took a class on board our ship with the pastry chef, and she made a classic Portuguese pastry that is in every shop you pass. It’s delicious and no small wonder that everyone is completely addicted to it.

There are a few steps involved but nothing too difficult. The chef started with a lemon and cinnamon syrup that is just that, lemon peel, cinnamon, water, and sugar. She was so funny. After she “pretended” to stir everything up she always said “ding,ding,ding!”. 

The next step is an egg custard. This has a long history that involves monks starching their head gear with egg whites leaving lots of leftover yolks. They gave those to bakeries and this eggy custard was the result. Again, not hard, egg yolks, milk, flour, and corn starch.

The crust is store bought puff pastry. They have special tins for baking but my muffin pan has worked like a charm. The recipe required some serious translating, it was written in English – but not the way we write or read a recipe. It’s been fun to re-create this much-loved dish from our trip. I can’t think of a better souvenir to share with you. Enjoy!

Pastel de Nata 

Syrup

Lemon peel (recipe did not specify but I used about ½ lemon)

Cinnamon stick

1 ¼ cups sugar

½ cup water

Boil for 3 minutes then set aside to cool.

Custard

3 Tbsp flour

2 Tbsp corn starch

3 egg yolks

1 cup milk (I think she used whole milk, but I mixed a little 2% with ½ & 1/2)

Combine flour and corn starch.

Add egg yolks and about ¼ of the milk to flour mixture stirring well.

Heat the rest of the milk to a near boil then gradually add hot milk to flour and egg mixture, stirring after each addition.

Heat over medium high heat until thick stirring, about 4 minutes.

Pastry

Preheat oven to 450.

Thaw 3 sheets of puff pastry. 

Roll up and slice pieces about 1 ½ – 2 inches and press into muffin tins sprayed with cooking spray.

Remove cinnamon stick and lemon peel from syrup and add to custard mixture. (syrup is very thick)

Spoon custard into pastry lined muffin tins – about 2 Tbsp for each.

Bake 15 minutes until tops begin to brown.

Cool slightly and remove from pan.