Part of the joy of eating these tarts comes from the contrast of the crunchy crust with the soft custardy filling. Making the custard is easy; the crust is more of a commitment involving rolling, buttering, folding, and repeating. If you want a shortcut, start with store-bought puff pastry, roll out to a 12" square about ⅛" thick, roll into a tightly spiraled log, and follow the instructions for slicing and pressing into the muffin tin cups. And you can read more about the globe-spanning history of Portuguese egg tarts here.
Ingredients
Makes 12
Dough
½
1
½
Filling and Assembly
1
1
¾
⅓
⅛
1½
6
1
Special Equipment
Preparation
Dough
Step 1
Using your hands, mix salt, 1 cup flour, and ½ cup water in a large bowl until a shaggy dough forms. Knead until dough is elastic but still very sticky, about 5 minutes (alternatively, beat on medium speed in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until dough pulls away from sides of bowl, about 3 minutes). Wrap in plastic and let sit 30 minutes to relax gluten.
Step 2
Make sure your butter is softened to the consistency of sour cream (you can put it in a bowl and give it a stir). Generously flour (really, use a lot of flour) a clean work surface. Place dough on surface and dust with flour; lightly coat rolling pin with flour. Roll dough out to a 12" square (it will be quite thin), flouring surface as needed to prevent dough from sticking.
Step 3
Brush excess flour off dough. Imagine dough is made up of 3 equal columns. Using a small rubber spatula, spread 2½ Tbsp. butter over the left and center columns, leaving a ½" border around the edges (it should look like a slice of toast that’s been buttered on the left two-thirds). Lift up the right, unbuttered column and fold it over the middle column, then fold the far left column over the middle, as though you were folding a letter into thirds. Rotate dough 90° counterclockwise; the sides and top edge will be open.
Step 4
Generously flour work surface and dough. Roll out again to a 12" square. Repeat buttering and folding process. Again rotate folded dough 90° counterclockwise, flouring surface as needed. Roll dough out a third time to a 12" square (it’s worth it; we promise!). Spread remaining butter over surface of dough, leaving a ½" border. Starting with the long side closest to you, tease up edge of dough with a bench scraper and tightly roll it away from you into a log, brushing excess flour from the underside as you go. This dough is very forgiving—if there are any small holes, don't worry about it. When you get to the end, wet edge of dough just before you roll it so that it sticks. Trim both ends to clean up the edges, cut log in half crosswise, then wrap both pieces in plastic wrap (you should have two 6" logs). Chill 1 log at least 3 hours; transfer remaining log to freezer for another use (this amount of dough makes enough for 24 tarts; freeze the extras for your future crispy tart needs).
Step 5
Do Ahead: Dough can be made 1 day ahead; keep chilled, or freeze up to 3 months.
Filling and Assembly
Step 6
Peel zest from one half of lemon into wide strips with a vegetable peeler, leaving white pith behind; set aside. Bring cinnamon, sugar, and ¼ cup water to a boil in a small saucepan fitted with candy thermometer over medium-high heat. Cook, swirling pan occasionally, until thermometer registers 225°. Remove from heat and stir in reserved lemon peel. Let sugar syrup sit 30 minutes.
Step 7
Position a rack in top third of oven; preheat to 500°. Place a rimmed baking sheet in oven to heat.
Step 8
Whisk flour, salt, and ½ cup milk in a medium bowl until combined and no lumps remain. Heat remaining 1 cup milk in a large saucepan over medium-high until it begins to boil, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk into flour mixture. Return mixture to saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until thick, creamy, and smooth, about 5 minutes.
Step 9
Strain sugar syrup through a fine-mesh sieve into hot milk mixture and whisk to combine. Whisk in egg yolks and vanilla.
Step 10
Cut chilled dough crosswise into twelve ½"-thick slices. Place 8 slices on a plate and chill; place remaining 4 dough slices in 4 cups of a standard 12-cup muffin pan. Using your thumb, firmly press the center each piece against bottom of cup, forming a wall of dough around your thumb. Using your thumbs and fingers, press edges of dough against sides of cup, turning pan as you go, until dough comes halfway up sides of cup and is about 1/16" thick (or as thin as you can get it). Repeat twice more with remaining dough slices.
Step 11
Fill each pastry shell with about 2 Tbsp. filling (it should come about three-fourths of the way up the sides). Try not to get any on the pan itself; it may burn and stick during baking.
Step 12
Carefully place muffin pan on heated baking sheet in oven and bake tarts until custard is slightly puffed and browned in spots, and crust is golden brown and bubbles of melted butter are popping around it, 14–16 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes in pan, then carefully transfer each tart to a wire rack with an offset spatula. Let cool 20 minutes before serving.
Leave a Review
Reviews (23)
Back to TopQuantities off.. - crust instructed to be cut too thin - yields too much filling - if you follow the instructions of how to press out pastry and fill with 2 tbs of filling, it will yield a tart that is the height of your thumb. - Cook time might be off. I found it to be too eggy -not enough vanilla, cinnamon and lemon undetectable. Honestly, I threw them in the garbage. The tarts are too labor intensive to "play around" with the recipe to get it right.
Sarah
Canada
12/15/2022
This is a fantastic recipe, by far the closest, yet most achievable to the real Fabrica de Belem stuff, I've made these 5 or so times and everyone is always amazed. Just a warning: This is not a problem with the recipe, it is inherent to all Pasteis de Nata, they go down in quality really quickly, even after an hour they're not nearly so nice, so just be aware that these aren't really a pastry to bring to a dinner party
Saul Kurzman
Devon
8/14/2021
This was super delicious! The crust came out golden and flaky, and the custard had a great texture. I was worried that the dough was so loose (more like batter consistency) before working in the butter, but it all turned out fine. It tasted plenty of vanilla but II wasn't able to detect the cinnamon and lemon notes in the final baked custard, so next time I might dial back the vanilla extract to 1/2 teaspoon, crush the cinnamon sticks a bit and use the peel from a whole lemon.
Michelle
SAN MATEO COUNTY, CA
12/31/2020
This recipe needs to be fixed. I agree with other comments that this recipe is erroneous in its quantity. 1. The Filling & Assembly ingredients yield enough for 24 tarts. I'd suggest halving all these ingredients. 2. As the instructed crust was too thin, I'd recommend using all of the dough for 12 tarts instead of 24 (cutting twelve 1" slices instead of 1/2" ). Otherwise, the tarts turned out quite delicious.
omsarah
Seattle
10/12/2020
Stupidity instructed
Jamie1230
Canada
6/5/2020
Was quite confused how I the puff pastry makes 24, but the filling only makes 12... Also, thrown off by how I was suppose to use only half of the puff pastry, but ended up needing more than the half
Anonymous
Vancouver
6/1/2020
Turned out delicious!! I dusted mine with a little cinnamon and powdered sugar. Followed the recipe exactly as is and got 24, not 12.
tay12345643
New York
4/26/2020
I cut the pastry roll into 1 inch thickness instead of 1/2 inch (so got 12 instead of 24). I am not sure how 1/2 inch would work--seems like the tart crust would be too thin. Worked out great.
Anonymous
East Greenwich, RI
4/24/2020
To my delight, this recipe was much easier than it looks. The tarts came out absolutely delicious, and just how I remember from Portugal--flaky, buttery and with a delicious custard. Surprisingly, the dough was not hard to work with at all, the hardest part was pressing it into the muffin tin--but I had frozen the log instead of refrigerating it (so as to not have to wait so long) so I am sure that contributed. The sugar syrup did re-crystallize as it cooled even though I added lemon juice as some reviewers said, but I just reheated it a bit again to melt the crystals and that worked fine. Would love to do again in the future.
Anonymous
East Greenwich, RI
4/24/2020
Turned out pretty good. I opted for my favorite puff pastry recipe, which I blind baked before adding the custard. To prevent crystalization, I suggest NOT swirling the pan, and keeping the temp at medium while bringing syrup to 225deg. Also, I thought the custard a bit thin, and lacking in flavor from the cinn. and lemon zest; so, I returned the cinn. stick and zest to the custard, and carefully continued cooking on and off the flame, whisking vigorously, for another 10mins or so. Faint influence was wonderful!!
Anonymous
California
4/22/2020
Super yummy! When you add the flour milk mixture into the pan, make sure to really stir it the whole time or it can get a bit chunky. My syrup didn't crystalize but I mixed the sugar and water beforehand and then tried to stir it just a little while it was in the pan. The dough is a bit of a pain, but nice to have some extra puff pastry around for later!
Anonymous
Spain
4/3/2020
Ditto the comments below. Confusing amounts of tartlets vs. custard. And, my first try at the sugar syrup failed due to crystallization. I followed the suggestion in comments and the second try worked. It's a delicious treat!
Anonymous
Somerville, MA
1/21/2020
AMAZING!!! This recipe is extremely delicious. These fresh, homemade Portuguese custard tarts are incredible. I'm lost for words. The pastry is crispy and flakey, a glorious crunch as you take a bite, the custard melts in your mouth with a lemony, vanilla aroma. There is some confusion about the quantities of custard and pastry. as it said that the pastry made 24 tarts, and did not repeat this for the custard, I assumed that the custard made 12 tarts and doubled the custard recipe! Although the custard is delicious and I am happy to make more tarts in the future, it would be good if this recipe stated throughout that it made 24 OR 12 consistently.
Anonymous
Cambridgeshire
5/22/2019
Love this recipe! The dough was quite wet to start with and I wondered if I had converted the recipe wrong (cups > grams), but once I kneaded it came together nicely. The first time I made them the sugar syrup crystalized, but I saw the review below and the second time I brought it up to about 200 degrees and then added some lemon juice and it worked great.
Anonymous
UK
2/15/2019
This could be because I didn't use a candy thermometer, but the first time I made the syrup, it totally crystallized. I found another recipe, though, that says you should cook the syrup until it boils, let it go for one minute, and then remove from heat. Then, I took half a lemon, stirred some of its juice into the syrup, and then put the lemon half in there until I was ready to use it. It worked perfectly! Also, I would suggest rotating the tarts halfway through baking to make sure all of them get a nice char on top.
10/22/2018