Divine Pastéis de Nata Tart
If you’ve travelled to Portuguese, you must know what Pastéis de Nata is. It’s a humble looking, small treat made with puff pastry and vanilla custard. It’s the classic, super addictive combination that makes you want to eat more and more. I’ve eaten these pastries many times in my life, but traveling to Lisbon in 2019 made me love them even more. The crunchy and almost savoury, leafy pastry together with soft, creamy and sweet vanilla filling are something incredibly delicious.
If you have those traditional small pastries at the table, you can usually eat just one (though I still eat more of them). But, what if you had a big pie and you could eat big slices of this deliciousness? As a result for that need, this Pastéis de Nata was born! All the same flavours and textures but in the shape of a big tart. Making a pie also makes your life easier because you don’t have to shape several small pastries, just make 1 big one!
Divine Pastéis de Nata Pie
Active: 15 min, Passive: 3 h
10–12 servings
-1 sheet = 500 g of puff pastry
Vanilla custard:
- 400 ml (about 1 3/4 cups) whipping cream
- 200 ml (3/4 cup) milk
- 6 egg yolks
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 145 g sugar (about 1.75 dl = 3/4 cup)
- 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 0.5 tbsp of lemon zest (prefer organic lemons)
Preheat the oven to 225°C (435°F).
Mix all the filling ingredients in a sauce pan (cream, milk, yolks, vanilla extract, sugar, flour and lemon zest). Bring up to medium heat, continuously whisking. When the mixture starts to boil and starts to get thicker, take off the heat and whisk for about a half a minute before setting it aside to cool a little.
Roll the pastry on a floured surface. Depending on the shape of your pie tin, roll it into a circle. Lift the rolled pastry carefully on top of a greased 20cm pie tin. The pastry should cover the edges. Press the pastry on the bottom and sides of the pie tin and cut the extra off from the sides.
Pour the vanilla custard on top of the crust.
Bake in the oven for about 18-24 minutes until the pastry is beautifully golden brown and the vanilla custard filling looks the same as in the classic pastéis de nata pastries (see the pictures before the recipe).
Take off the oven and leave to cool for 2-3 hours until the filling is set. For an authentic Portuguese experience, finish the pie with some grounded cinnamon. Enjoy!
