Pastéis de Nata

About This Recipe

Pastéis de Nata are Portugal's most famous pastry — flaky, layered shells filled with rich, smooth custard, and caramelized on top to dramatic black-spotted perfection. Created by Catholic monks in Belém before 1820, the original recipe (Pastéis de Belém) remains a closely guarded secret. The Lisbon café has lines around the block. They're best eaten warm, dusted with cinnamon, with strong coffee.

Ingredients

Serves 12

• 1 packagepuff pastry (about 350g), thawed
• 1.25 cupssugar
• 1 cupwater
• 1 stickcinnamon
• 1 striplemon peel
• 3 tbspall-purpose flour
• 1.5 cupsmilk
• 6egg yolks
• 1 tspvanilla extract
• ground cinnamon (for serving)
• powdered sugar (for serving)

Instructions

1. 1

   Make sugar syrup

   Combine sugar, water, cinnamon stick, and lemon peel in saucepan. Bring to boil, simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Discard cinnamon and lemon. Cool to lukewarm.

2. 2

   Make milk-flour roux

   Whisk flour with 1/4 cup milk until smooth. In separate saucepan, heat remaining milk until just below boiling. Whisk hot milk into flour mixture.

3. 3

   Cook custard base

   Return to saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thick like pudding, 5-7 minutes.

4. 4

   Combine with syrup

   Slowly pour cooled sugar syrup into hot milk mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. Cool to lukewarm.

5. 5

   Add yolks

   Whisk egg yolks. Slowly add to syrup-milk mixture, whisking constantly. Strain through fine sieve to remove any lumps. Stir in vanilla.

6. 6

   Prepare pastry shells

   Roll puff pastry into tight cylinder. Slice into 12 rounds. Press each round into a muffin tin (well-greased), thinning the bottom and pressing up the sides to form a shell.

7. 7

   Fill

   Fill each pastry shell 3/4 full with custard.

8. 8

   Bake hot

   Bake at 250°C (or as hot as your oven goes) for 15 minutes until pastry is deeply golden brown, custard is dramatically caramelized with black spots on top, slightly puffy.

9. 9

   Cool slightly

   Cool 5 minutes in pan. Custard will deflate slightly — that's fine. Remove carefully.

10. 10

    Serve

    Best served warm, sprinkled with ground cinnamon and powdered sugar. Pair with espresso (bica).

Variations

• •

  Add lemon zest or orange zest to the custard.

• •

  Vegan version: use coconut cream and aquafaba (results vary).

Storage

Best eaten same day. Refrigerate up to 2 days, reheat in 200°C oven for 5 minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions