March 23rd
2005
First I have to state that, yes, I know what a cupcake or muffin is. And yes, I do know, Pasteis de Nata aren’t exactly the same… BUT: Ever since I first tried those little delights about a year ago, my muffin tray has never seen any muffins again – all I’m using it for now are…Pasteis de Nata! So I think they have the right [hopefully] to take part in IMBB no.13, hosted by Maki of “I was just really very hungry.”. They are what they are…little, very delicate cakes baked in cup-shape ;)
We’ve been addicts since we tried them last year in their original environment – Lisbon. A wonderful city, to good to be true for any sweet tooth. Pastelarias (little pastry shops) are placed at almost every corner and their numerous pastries are simply delicious. Our favorite breakfast place is Pastelaria Versailles (Avenida da República 15A) with a traditional coffeehouse atmosphere of bygone days and a huge variety of very good food. Great for watching people, mostly locals, the crowd is completely different on weekends (more elegant/prominent) or during the week (hectic business people).
Back at home we tried different recipes for our new favorite pastries, some use cream, some twice the amount of eggs, but it took some time until we figured out, how we liked them best. And finally, this is our variation of Pasteis de Nata. Never as good as they were in Lisbon, but verrrry close…
Defrost puff pastry and stack single layers. I use a wet brush, this way they stick together much easier. Roll the pastry out to a 25×35cm rectangle (approximately). Make a roll -start with the shorter side- and chill it in the freezer until it becomes firm, but not frozen (about 20 minutes).
Now some tricky mathematics :) Trial and error has shown me, I will get 20 to 24 Pasteis out of these ingredients. So my method is, I’ll cut the dough roll in half – 2 rolls (each for 12 Pasteis). Cut each half in halves again – 4 rolls (each for 6 Pasteis). Finally cut each roll in halves again (each makes 3 Pasteis). Now you have to cut each piece in three equally thick slices. I find it much easier this way. If I start cutting single pieces from just one roll, at least I always end up with either too many or too few slices… Now manually form them into little cups with your hand make them fit in the greased 12-hole muffin tray. Preheat oven to 225-250° Celsius.
Heat up milk, vanilla pod (split lengthways and scraped out seeds) & butter in a pot. Remove the vanilla pod when boiling, add previously combined sugar, salt and starch. Stir well. Bring to a boil again for a short moment until it thickens and set aside to cool (for at least 10 minutes).
Add egg and egg yolks, whisk well and fill the mixture into the pastry shells – half-full, max. 2/3 is enough. Otherwise the custard will rise over the pastry and burn onto the tray…
Bake for 10-12 minutes. The pastries should become quite dark on top with ‘black dots’, which is typical for the Portuguese Pasteis de Nata. Being impatiently as I am sometimes, I rescued mine too soon – again…
Before serving, dust pastries with cinnamon.
Pasteis de Nata
Recipe source: finally our own creation, we mixed up different recipes to our liking
Required time: takes about 45 minutes
.
Ingredients (makes 24)
1 pack puff pastry (350 - 400 g), frozen
1/2 liter milk
250g sugar
30g starch
1 pinch salt
2 tsp butter
1 egg
3 egg yolk
1 pod vanilla
cinnamon, to decorate
Pasteis de Nata - ich liiiebe Pasteis de Nata! Ich habe einmal versucht, sie nachzubacken, das war aber nicht so der Hit. Dein Rezept steht schon auf der to-do-Liste :-)
Toll - ein Food Blog aus München! Ich freue mich schon auf Tipps und Hinweise, mit denen auch ich was anfangen kann.
Your Pastéis de Nata (or Pastéis de Belém, where they're really the greatest) don't look very similar to the portuguese version, but I'm sure they taste just as heavenly!
By the way, I'm portuguese and living in Lisbon, so if you want something from here, feel free to ask. :)
Your site is lovely and very yummy, if I may say so. Wonderful recipes, terrible timing for me - I'm on diet. One day... ;)
What an excellent choice for this IMBB! These look lovely and becken one to try this recipe! Thank you!
I too have fallen in love with the Pasteis de Nata in Portugal - although I did not taste them in Lisbon but at The Vintage House Hotel in the Douro Valley - I have no idea how many my husband and I ate for breakfast - but we didn't need to eat for the rest of the day! I have tried to bake them myself and so far the first attempt the filling was too wet - the last attempt I felt the pastry was too thick and not as tasty as the Portuguese pastry, but I feel the filling was better - I shall try your recipe next - thank you so much!
Es ist zwar nun einige Jahre her, dass ich in Lissabon war. Aber die "Pastelaria Versailles" und das sehr freundliche und aufmerksame Personal werde ich nicht vergessen. Bin auch jeden Tag dorthin zum Frühstücken.
Freut mich, dass offensichtlich die Qualität gehalten wurde.
Wolfgang Jung
I am so glad you posted this recipe because i have a friend who's just back from a one week trip in Lisbon -- and she teased me by making m tasting delicious Pasteis de Belem she brought back with her.
I loved it so much i am now craving to make these.
Love
Fanny
hello everybody,
i'm from portugal but living in munich. and yes, i miss them: pastéis de nata. i have a recipe from my mother, but we only tried it once. my mother told me, that there are two ways of making them: with cream or with starch.
i think, that in portugal they mainly make it with starch. the pastelaria versailles near saldanha is really a nice coffee house. it's like entering in an other world. did you try the original pastel de belém - how they are called too - in belém?
greetings from munich
Born in Portugal and have lived in Australia for most of my life, I have to say Pasteis De Nata are my favourite! My mother taught how to make them with cream & milk, however I lost the recipe (they turned out perfect each time) and she has passed away. I once made 30 of them for my son's class and he claims that they were gone within 5 minutes and the students wanted to know if they could order some of me.I have been back to Lisbon where I was born and can never have too many. There a few places in Melbourne that make them just not the same. I need some now.
Pasteis de Nata in Lisboa are the most delicious cakes I`ve ever tried in my life:-) I`m looking for them in cafes in Poland but unfortunately I can` find... I have to come back to Portugal:-)
I've been to Belem and tried the pasteis de belem there. They were still warm and sooo delicious. I'm glad to have a recipe now, thanks!!!
[...] Delicious Days - Pasteis de Nata [...]
[...] Pasteis de Nata Those gorgeous custard tarts that are a Portuguese delight! Delicious Days has a good article as well as a well received recipe [...]
I can't wait to try this recipe! I posted a link on my blog as well.
Yay, can't wait to try this recipe! Thank you.
I just came back to Finland from Lisbon three days ago and of course tried Pateis de Belem there - they tasted absolutely heavenly!
I appreciate your receipe but the receipe asks for 1/2 liter of milk, 250g sugar, 30g starch. What is this in cups or ounces, plus what is starch, is it corn starch, flour or ?
Please advise, I would love to make the receipe as I just returned from Portugal and loved them also. Thanks
EDIT Nicky: Hi Violet, You can find help here and here :)
Oh! die liebe ich auch! (obwohl ich nie in Lissabon war!) allerdings frage ich mich wie das Rezept bei dir funktioniert, bei meiner Version muss man die blätterteig mulden mit dem Pudding drin 1 std. kalt stellen, sonst bildet es beim Backen eine Blase die aufplatzt und dass ganze törtchen sieht aus wie ein Vulkan!
Thanks for the great recipe: these turned out SOOOO GOOOD! I made two batches: the pasteis of the first one turned out all wobbly - cause I hadn't listened and neither stretched the dough right up to the top of the muffin mold nor had I stopped at filling only 2/3 with the cream; the second batch, however, looks absolutely perfect and brings back fond memories of me turning 30 in Lisbon. Thanks for the great recipe - I'll sure make more of those!
[...] have a calming effect on the body. It is no surprise that the most famous food of Portugal is the Pasteis de Belem, the small, sweet, creamy custard tart sold daily in their thousands from the most famous pastry [...]
i´m from portugal and these are my all time favourite cakes!!!!!!!!!!! but they don´t really look like your picture of them! they have black spots on tje top they're more shaped (not so muck like a little cake but more like a cupcake) and in the out side they're made of puff pastry. you see....it's more like if there was an hard cup and inside of it a soft cream with a toasted top. children love to eat only the cream ith a spoon!
This is an absolutely suuuuuuper recipe. I enjoyed reading the article so much! I love the picture of the pastelaria - in slovakia, hungary (budapest) and austria (vienna) we call them coffee houses. They look just like that! You made me soo excited, seeing the picture, as I am going back there for Easter.
I will definitely try your recipe - this is my favourite by now since I like interesting pastries to go with a coffee.