Portuguese Custard Tarts

Judy · Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 3:55 am Post subject: Portuguese Custard Tarts

Portuguese Custard Tarts

3 egg yolks
1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
2 tablespoons cornflour
3/4 cup (180ml) cream
1/2 cup (125ml) water
strip of lemon rind
2 tsp vamilla essence
1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry

Perheat oven to hot (220C) and grease a 12-hole (1/3 cup capacity) muffin pan. Place egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a meduim saucepan and whisk until combined. Gradually whisk in the cream and water until smooth. Add the lemon rind and stir over medium heat until the mixture just comes to the boil. Remove from heat immediately, remove lemon rind and stir in vanilla.

Cut the pastry sheet in half, remove the plastic and stack the 2 halves on top of each other. Roll the pastry up tightly from the short side and cut into 12 x 1cm rounds.

Roll out each pastry round on a lightly floured board to 10cm. Press into the prepared muffin pans. Spoon the custard into the pastry cases.

Bake in a hot oven for about 20 minutes or until well browned, cool on a wire rack.
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swan · Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 11:21 am Post subject:

I totally LOVE those...Thank you Judy!!

Judy · Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 11:30 am Post subject:

You're very welcome, swan. I used to buy them all the time from a stall in Central Market until the guy who made them left town. I was so pleased to find a good recipe for them - they are my favourite pastry.
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JustMe · Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 213 Location: Ontario, Canada

Judy: I have an on-going quest for the best Portuguese custard tarts in the city (of Toronto and environs). There's a fabulous bakery about 20 minutes from me that has won so far.

I LOVE these!
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CasaArcoIris · Guest

Just joined today - best foodie website ever, especially since seeing your recipe Judy. My partner is over the moon and is salivating at the thought of having these tarts again.

They were a regular treat in Tavira, Portugal, when he lived there two years ago.

Very many thanks for this.

Judy · Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 11:42 pm Post subject:

Welcome, CasaArcoIris, I hope your tarts are a huge success!

There was an interesting article about them in the Melbourne Age newspaper last year. I don't use that recipe because I have been very happy with the one I already have, but it's a good article.
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Doing what you like is freedom
Liking what you do is happiness

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DrMell · Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 32 Location: Great Falls, VA USA

Pardon my ignorance, but what are caster sugar and cornflour and can we get them in the US? These sound so good I want to make them RIGHT NOW! Thanks!

Rainey · Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 6:47 pm Post subject:

Caster sugar is what we call "superfine" granulated sugar. There's a company that distributes it in the US. http://www.indiatree.com/productsindex.html I use a lot of their decorative sugars and they make good stuff, but you can either look for "fine" sugar made by the large commercial producers to save some $$$ or run ordinary granulated sugar through a food processor.

I'm going to guess that "cornflour" is corn starch but that's purely a hunch. I'll wait to see what someone knowledgeable fill us both in.
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Bekbeka · Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 108 Location: France

I'm not sure if corn starch & cornflour are one and the same. Cornflour is a main thickening agent, used more to thicken dishes than normal flour - in custards, sometimes soups or stews. Does that seem to match how you use corn starch?

Rainey · Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 10:29 pm Post subject:

Yup. Here's a reference that indicates they're the same thing. http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0020800.html
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God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

DrMell · Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 32 Location: Great Falls, VA USA

Thanks Rainey! I've never seen Superfine sugar in the stores here, so I do the food processor thing and it seems to work very well.

Off to buy pastry dough .....

Rainey · Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 7:17 pm Post subject:

It's also sometimes marketed as "bakers'" sugar and bars use it for it's ability to dissolve quickly. If you've got a neighborhood watering hole you could ask where they get theirs. But, as you've noted, it's an easy enough thing to whirl regular granulated down.
_________________
God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

madameshawshank · Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 10:35 pm Post subject:

yep...the scrumptious tarts! how well I remember making them for the first time...golly I thought, just like the shop ones! 'n don't they disappear quickly..."Just one more?"

each Monday, or mostly each Monday, I sew with a great bunch of dames..the common thread BEING thread as it were! Jane, a breathtakingly fabulous stitcher also is fine in the kitchen..she makes her pastry..it's not puff...I'll try and find the recipe...it's quite a different texture to the bought puff....both scrumptious though
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"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

Filipe · Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Posts: 32 Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Dear Judy

It was great to find a reference to our "pastéis-de-nata" (as we call them here in Portugal)
About the recipe...there are several versions, and I'm actually not sure of what is the one that produces better results (at least on my standards) I'll do some research on that, translate it, and share it with you all.

By the way, how do you eat them?
The best way to eat them - and the portuguese way to eat them - is with icing sugar and powder cinnamon sprinkled over them while they're still hot!

I'll give you a link to our most famous "factory" of these delicious cakes, making them since 1837. It is located in Lisbon, on the riverside, at a neighbourhood called Belém, right next to our Presidencial Palace.
You can check it at :
http://www.pasteisdebelem.pt/index.htm

Been there last sunday afternoon and ate 6 in-a-row!

madameshawshank · Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2005 7:03 am Post subject:

oh Filipe...if you could do that...find a recipe close to the source as it were..and post it...thank yous by the dozen...

I've made them ~ however have never thought to eat them hot...I've only ever seen them served cold...and as for the topping...the power...yep will give that a go..

again..thanks in advance..

if the recipe you find includes the method for the pastry, all the better... Wink

_________________
"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson