Pastel De Nata

First things first, you want to make the custard. This should be very cold when you bake it. Combine the sugar, water, cinnamon and lemon zest in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Stir until clear and set aside. Add the flour to another saucepan and whisk in a little of the milk to form a paste. Now gradually whisk in the rest of the milk. Split the vanilla pod, scrape out the seeds and add to the pot. Cook the milk over a medium heat, whisking constantly until thickened and it starts to simmer. Remove from the heat and whisk in the sugar syrup. Now pour over the yolks and whisk everything together. Pass through a sieve to remove the cinnamon, lemon peel and any lumps. Season with salt and chill.

Cube the butter and chuck into the bowl of a stand mixer. Tip in the flour, salt and sugar, add the paddle attachment to the bowl and pop the whole thing in the freezer for 10 mins to get super cold. Now pop the bowl into the base of the mixer, attach the paddle and mix on low speed for 5-6 mins to “rub in” the butter to the dry ingredients. Slowly stream in the ice cold water until you have a shaggy dough. Tip it out and form into a disc. Rest for 20 mins in the fridge wrapped in a tea towel.

Once rested, lightly flour a clean surface and pop your dough down. Lightly flour a rolling pin and roll your dough out into a rough rectangle 40-50cm by 15-25cm and about 1cm thick.

Cut the second quantity of cold butter into thin slices and shingle in the middle 2/4 of the dough, leaving the top ¼ and the bottom ¼ free. Fold the bottom quarter of the dough up and over the butter, and the top quarter down. Meet them in the middle and pinch together, sealing in the butter. Now roll the dough out into the same size rectangle as it started, being careful not to let the butter squidge out the sides. Fold the top third over the middle third, and then bottom third over that. Squidge the layers together a little, wrap and place into the fridge for 20 mins to firm up.

Repeat the rolling and folding process once more. So, roll the pastry out into the rectangle shape (the opposite direction this time) and fold into thirds. Wrap and chill for 10 mins. Now roll out into a large rectangle that is about ¼ cm thick. Make sure you use plenty of flour here, you don’t want it to stick! Cut the rectangle into two smaller rectangles down the middle. Pop one of the pieces onto a tray and into the fridge.

Take the third quantity of butter (softened) and spread half of this over your first piece of pastry. With the long edge towards the bottom (towards you) roll up the pastry into a log. Keep the spiral as tight as you can. A good way to do this is to roll the top edge very thin and stick it to the surface. That way you can pull against it and create tension in the roll. Once rolled up, wrap and chill until firm, this should take about 20 mins in the fridge or 6-7 mins in the freezer. Repeat with the remaining butter and pastry.

Grab one of your pastry logs and cut it into 2 pieces. It should have a beautiful spiral pattern on the cut side. Grab your moulds and pop a piece of pastry, cut side down, into each. Now, using your thumbs (you can dip them in water to make this easier!), push down in the centre of the spiral of pastry and work the pastry up the sides of the mould, making the pastry as thin as you dare. This takes a bit of practise, but after a couple, you’ll be away. Repeat with all of your moulds and pastry.

Get your oven on now, preheat to 250°C.

Line your tart moulds up on a tray, I find you can do around 15 at a time. Carefully pour in the chilled custard so the tarts are ¾ full.

Time to bake! Slide the tray into the oven and bake for 9-10 mins until the custard has blistered black spots and the pastry is a deep golden brown. Carefully remove from the moulds as soon as you can, and leave to cool for a good 10-15 mins on a wire rack. Repeat with the remaining tarts. Dust with icing sugar and cinnamon and serve warm from the oven. I like mine with a strong black coffee. Bliss.