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Treat Yourself To This Easy & Delicious Portuguese Egg Tart Recipe

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Ili  •  May 31, 2020

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Mention Lisbon, and most foodies (including us 😁) will immediately think of the city’s iconic pastry that is pastel de nata or egg tart. With flaky crusts and a creamy custard filling, these palm-sized tarts are an absolute dream to eat especially if you have a sweet tooth!    Awhile back, our co-founders Suzana and Melvin had a chance to taste some Muslim-friendly Portuguese egg tarts from one of Lisbon’s popular bakeries. As much as we would all love to fly to Portugal and savour them ourselves, making travel plans right now isn’t in the cards. So, the next best thing you can do is to make them yourselves and we’re here to help you with this recipe 😊 Ingredients (makes 12) For the egg tart dough (Do note that this recipe involves making the dough from scratch. To make this process much easier, you can always opt for ready-made puff pastry.) 
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 cup of all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup of water
  • ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
For the filling
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 1 ½  cup of milk
  • ½ cup of heavy cream
  • ¾ cup of sugar
  • ⅓ cup of all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the garnish (optional) Cinnamon or powdered sugar  Directions
  1. Mix salt, flour and water in a large bowl until a dough forms.
  2. Knead the dough for 5 minutes until it becomes elastic and can pull away from the sides of the bowl. 
  3. Wrap the dough in plastic and let it sit for 30 minutes.
  4. Once the dough is relaxed, generously flour a clean work surface and place the dough on top. Dust some flour onto the dough and lightly coat your rolling pin.  
  5. Roll out your dough into a rectangle (slightly larger than a 12 inch square pan) and prepare to fold it with butter in between the layers. To give you a better idea of how you can do so properly, check out this video from minute 1.50 to 5.13.
  1. While you let your log of dough chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour, whisk heavy cream, sugar, milk, egg yolks, flour and vanilla extract in a pan until the sugar is dissolved. 
  2. When the custard is thick enough to coat a spoon, remove from heat and continue to whisk until you no longer see steam releasing from it. 
  3. Set it aside to cool completely andpress a plastic wrap onto the surface of the custard so a skin does not form on the top.
  4. Preheat the oven to 245 degrees Celsius and take your chilled dough out.
  5. Cut the dough crosswise into twelve equal slices. Place them into a muffin pan and firmly press the centre of each piece against the bottom of the cup. Using your thumb and fingers, press the edges of the dough against the sides of the cup evenly. 
  6. Fill each shell with about 2 tablespoons of the custard mixture. It should come up about slightly more than halfway up the sides. 
  7. Pop the tray into your oven and let them bake for about 14 to 16 minutes or until you see the pastry turning golden brown and the signature scorched bubbles forming on the custard.  
  8. Remove the tarts from the oven and let them cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then transfer each tart to a rack and cool for another 20 minutes before enjoying.
Notes:
  1. If you’re making the dough from scratch, it’s best to prepare it a day before so you can chill it overnight and achieve an even flakier crust! 
  2. Wrap any remaining unbaked puff pastrytightly with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days or freeze them for up to 1 month.
Now that you’re armed with this recipe, it’s time to take your baking skills to the next level and impress your family, friends and even neighbours with some Portuguese egg tarts 😋

Tags:breakfastlisbonpastryportuguese-egg-tartrecipe

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