The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts...

                 

There is a Portuguese tart that once tried is hard to forget. Small bites of crisp, light, flaky pastry that is brim-filled with a slick, rich, creamy filling. They take only three bites to eat and taken with an espresso, they are a truly beautiful thing. The story told of these little tarts is that originally they were created by Catholic nuns at the ‘Jeronomós Monastery’ in Belém, Lisbon. After the closure of the monastery in 1837 the ‘Casa dos Pastéis de Belém’ opened its wide doors, and they have been open wide ever since serving these world famous delicious tarts. It is The No.1 place in Lisbon to eat them, people travel distances and the queues are known to be long. Here, in England they can be found in the early morning hours in ‘Little Portugal’, an area situated on Stockwell Road near Brixton in London. Tray upon tray of these heavenly little bites are relentlessly hauled from their scorching ovens and are up for grabs each morning.

My love for this tart is immense and I have spent many happy hours following different recipes, most are vague giving them a certain air of secrecy, which I like. Repeating a recipe over and over again a certain truth to the ingredients happens, and from this I have devised my own version. It is not exactly like a Belém Pastéis or even the ones from 'Little Portugal', but this unassuming little tart still tastes lovely.  

Pastéis de Nata

Makes 24

500 g flaky pastry

240 ml double cream

100 g caster sugar

4 large free range egg yolks

1 tbs rice flour

1 vanilla pod split with the seeds scraped

2 strips of unwaxed lemon zest

icing sugar and cinnamon powder to sprinkle after baking

Preheat your oven to the hottest temperature.
Roll out your pastry on a lightly floured table to about the thickness of a 50p and around 30 cm x 40 cm in dimension or there and there abouts. Gently but firmly roll the pastry into a long sausage with the pastry spiralled inside. Place in the fridge for 10 minutes to chill. Butter your tins, I use unsalted butter as the tarts are so small and the pastry has salt in, so I find unsalted to be the best choice. When the pastry roll is chilled it is ready to slice into 1.5 cm pieces.

Press the pastry into the tins with light hands to make thin pastry cups. Pastry always responds best to cool hands, so be as deft as you can.

Put the tins into the fridge to make the pastry cups really cool before going into the hot oven. Place all the ingredients except the lemon zest in a heavy bottomed saucepan, heat slowly and gently over a low heat, stirring all the time. It will begin to thicken fairly quickly so you need to make sure you take it straight off the heat before it comes to a boil. When this happens give it a loving stir and put in the lemon zest and leave to cool for awhile. Once the cream mixture has cooled sufficiently take out the pieces of lemon zest and fill your pastry cups a third of the way up, do not fill completely as they will rise in the oven, spill and burn. These tarts need to be cooked quickly in a hot oven 450F - 230C - gas mark 8 for 12 - 15 minutes. Place them in the middle of your oven and wait patiently for ten minutes or so, give them a check, depending on the heat of your particular oven, but be on guard as once they start to turn it happens swiftly. Once golden take them out and leave in the tins for a little bit to settle down. Traditionally in Portugal some are sprinkled with a little cinnamon powder and some with icing sugar, whatever your preference.