Pastel de nata ingredients11/10/2023 ![]() When the monastery was briefly closed in the early 19th century, the recipe found its way into the hands of an enterprising local businessman, and his shop now sells about 20,000 a day. Instead of a short, crumbly pastry, the pastel de nata has a crisp, slightly salty, layered crust and, rather than the firm, egg-rich fillings of the classic British or French custard tart, the filling is almost molten, and spiced with cinnamon and lemon zest, as opposed to our peppery nutmeg or sweet vanilla.Īs chef Nuno Mendes explains in his love letter to the city of his birth, Lisboeta, they were originally sold at the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Belém. Once the custards come out of the oven and cool, you can sprinkle them with icing sugar and cinnamon.Calling pastel de nata a Portuguese custard tart is a bit like calling a pasty a Cornish calzone – similar in principle, but a very different beast in reality. Place the molds in a very hot oven (250 to 300 degrees centigrade). Remove from the heat and wait until the mixture cools down. To prepare the filling, mix all the ingredients and bring them to a boil. Moist your thumb in water and spread the dough to the edges of the mold. Place the dough at the center of a small mold. Cut the rolls into pieces of 2 to 3 centimeters. Cut it in stripes and fold into long rolls. Repeat the operation twice, first using the second third and then the last third of the butter. Stretch the dough again forming a square. Fold the dough from bottom to top and from left to right, making sure that the fold fits perfectly at edges and on the sides. Spread one third of the butter over the dough, leaving a strip of one inch at the edges of the square. Knead some of the butter until it has the same consistency as the dough. Next, stretch the dough into a square form. Kneed the mixture until it becomes homogeneous and let it rest for 20 minutes. Place the flour on a stone table and make a hole in the middle of the flour to pour the water. Melt the salt in warm water and divide the butter into three equal portions. Ingredients for the filling: 5 deciliters of cream, 8 egg yolks, 3 tablespoons of flour, 200 grams of sugar, and one lemon peel. ![]() Ingredients for the puff pastry: 500 grams of flour, 500 grams of butter, 2 to 3 deciliters of water, and salt. It is a place where it is ordinary to find the extraordinary: heavenly pasteis de nata sold for a modest price in every street corner. After a few hours of work, we were rewarded with two dozen delicious pasteis de nata.Īll the effort that went into making these pastries made us appreciate Portugal even more. We started by making a version of rough puff pastry, folding the dough to create delicate layers of butter and flour. The ingredients are humble: flour, butter, cream, eggs, sugar, water, and lemon. She tells us the key elements of the recipe and expects us to improvise the rest. They’re more like jazz lead sheets than classical music scores. ![]() Modesto’s instructions assume we know what we’re doing. The old pages creaked, surprised to be turned with such urgency. We opened with trepidation “Cozinha Tradicional Portuguesa” (Portuguese Traditional Cooking), the imposing tome of vernacular recipes compiled by the legendary Maria de Lurdes Modesto. Far from a purveyor of “pasteis de nata,” how else can we satiate our craving for these divine custard tarts? Do not try this recipe at home unless you’re desperate! Which is how we feel.
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