Pastel de Nata {Portuguese Egg Tart}

Pastel de Nata, or as we usually call it “Nata”, is a famous pastry introduced to Macau from Portugal. Every local knows where to get the best of these in Macau. These custard-filled pastry have a buttery flaky crust and a burnt top that make them extra special. I personally love putting a ton of cinnamon on mine. Best for teatime, or hey, I’ll happily eat them for breakfast as well.

As a girl from Macau, I crave these but they are a rarity here. To curb my cravings, I am making these at home with a lazy verson—store bought pie dough. heh! They are no where as good as the ones from Macau, but I think they quite delicious, close enough for a delicate snack. One of these days I am going to make the dough from scratch and see how they compare. Well, until then here is the quick version.

For the crust

1 box Pilsbury pie crust

or, 300 g. dough (2.6 c.)

For the filling

250 ml milk

1/4 c. flour 

3/4 c. sugar 

125 ml water

4 egg yolks

lemon peel from half a lemon

1 cinnamon stick

cinnamon powder

Equipment

large strainer

muffin pan that holds 12

Prepare the dough. Keep the dough rolled, cut cross section into 12 equal pieces. Place cut pieces into muffin pan, with the cross-section side facing down. Press down and mold dough evenly into muffin pan cups. Be careful not to over press, this thins out the dough and it won't come out as flaky. The less number of press, the better. Especially avoid thinning out the edges or they will be burnt easily.

Preheat oven to 475ºF.

Make the filling. In a medium pot over medium-high heat, dissolve sugar in hot water. Stir until all sugar crystals disappear. Set syrup in a bowl to cool.

In a clean bowl, add flour. Add 3 T. milk to dissolve the flour, set aside. 

Place the pot used for syrup earlier over medium heat, add remaining milk, cinnamon stick, and lemon peel. Simmer for 3 minutes while stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Add milk + flour mixture to the pot and mix well. Add syrup to the milk mixture slowly, in 3 batches. Stir well upon adding. Pour mixture over a strainer into another container. Add egg yolks to the mixture. Mix well. {By this time the mixture should be cool enough not to cook the eggs. If it is still too hot, wait 5 minutes before adding the eggs.}

Pour custard mixture over the dough. Fill it two-thirds of the way per cup; when all the cups have been filled, go back and even out the mixture amount.

Bake for 18 minutes. The burnt top is normal and highly desirable. Optional: rotate tray at 15 min. to get a more even burnt top. { I was not able to achieve a lot of burnt top this time, partly because of the lower sugar content of my mixture. I will try raising my oven temp. to ~500ºF to obtain a more burnt top next time.}

Sprinkle cinnamon powder to serve. The custard gets really hot inside, let cool a bit prior to serving straight out the oven. Enjoy!