Portuguese custard tarts
Portuguese custard tarts
Oh my goodness! I l-o-v-e Portuguese custard tarts! Have you noticed how sometimes in cafes Portuguese tarts have the tendency to look a bit forlorn, a bit brown around the edges, and just not able to compete with the glorious cheesecakes standing next to them? Well after just one small bite I guarantee you’ll be hooked! The custard in this recipe is really delicious! Possibly the best custard I have ever made! Sweet and just mouth-watering, you just feel like eating more!
Portuguese custard tarts
Ingredients: 3 egg yolks, ½ cup caster sugar, 2 tbsp cornflour, ¾ cup cream, ½ cup water, strip of lemon rind, 2 tsp vanilla essence, 1 sheet of ready-made puff pastry
Steps: Preheat the oven to hot, 220 degrees Celsius. Grease a 12 hole (1/3 cup/80mL) muffin pan.
Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a small saucepan until combined. Gradually whisk in the cream andwater until smooth. Add the lemon rind, stir over medium heat until the mixture boil and thickens. Remove pan from the heat, remove and discard the rind, stir in the vanilla essence and then transfer the custard to a medium-sized bowl. Cover the surface of the custard with plastic wrap (to prevent a skin from forming as the custard cools).
Cut the puff pastry in half, stack the two halves on top of each other and then roll the pastry up tightly, and cut the log into twelve 1cm rounds. Lay pastry cut side up and roll each round to about 10cm width using a rolling pin. Press the rounds into the prepared muffin pans with your fingers.
Transfer spoonfuls of the cooled custard into the pastry cases and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until browned well. Stand tarts for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool. Tastes best when served fresh!
Makes 12
The Anxious Outsider
Can you please comment on how you make the "puff pastry" part...do you just buy it? How would you make it from scratch? Thank you!
well in this recipe i used ready-made puff pastry aka can be found in the freezer aisle- its easy. fast and convenient.
However to make your own puff pastry from scratch you basically layer dough with butter, creating hundreds of layers -> as the butter melts the dough produces steam and the layers are forced apart causing it to rise.
To make 500g pastry
ingredients: 250g unsalted butter, 2 cups plain flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 2/3 cup (170 mL) chilled water
steps: Melt 30g butter in a pan. Sift flour and salt onto a clean flat work surface and make a wellin the centre. add the butter and water to the centre and blend with your fingertips until you end up with a crumb mixture. (If it seems a little dry add a bit more water to form a dough)
Cut the dough with a pastry scraper, using a downward action then turn the dough and repeat in the opposite direction, to form a soft ball of dough. Score a cross on the top to prevent shrinkage, then wrap and refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes.
Soften the remaining butter by rolling it between two sheets of baking paper with a rolling pin, then roll it into a 10cm square. Ensure the butter is of the same consistency as the dough (not more melted/hard) otherwise they will not roll out the same amount.
Put the dough on the worksurface and roll it out to form a cross leaving the centre slightly thicker. Place the butter in the centtre and fold over each of the arms of the cross to make a parcel. Tap and toll out the dough to form a 15 x 45 cm rectangle, being as neat as possible and squaring off the corners, as everytime you fold, the edges will become less neat and the layers will not be even.
Fold the dough like a letter, the top third down and the bottom third up to form another square and roll out. Turn and repeat 3 times. Wrap the dough and chill again. Re-roll and fold twice more and then chill, until you have completed 6 turns. The pastry should now be an even yellow and is ready to use- if it still looks a little streaky then roll and fold the pastry again. Refrigerate until required.