Pastel de Nata (Portuguese Custard Tart) from Compadre Cooking School

Pastel de Nata (Portuguese Custard Tart) - made May 31, 2025 from Compadre Cooking School

2 large egg yolks

250 ml heavy whipping cream

90 grams granulated sugar

1 teaspoon flour

1 strip of lemon peel

1 cinnamon stick

300 grams of puff pastry (I used storebought puff pastry sheets)

8 pastel de nata tins

1. Combine egg yolks and heavy cream in medium saucepan and whisk together until combined. Whisk together flour and sugar before adding to cream mixture.
2. Place saucepan over medium heat and add lemon peel and cinnamon stick. Stir occasionally until until mixture thickens and almost boils. When close to boiling point, turn off heat and let cool.
3. Roll thawed puff pastry sheets into a tight log. Keep chilled until ready to use.
4. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F if your oven goes that high. If not, preheat to 450 degrees F with your baking sheet inside so it can also heat up. 
5. Slice puff pastry log into circles about the width of your finger. Place each circle in the center of a pastel de nata tin. Using your thumb, press the center of the pastry into the tin to anchor it. Press the dough up the sides of the tin all the way to just over the top edges. Fill each tin with the cooled custard mixture, more than 2/3 full but not all the way to the brim.
6. Remove heated baking sheet from oven and gently place filled pastel de nata tins on top. Place in oven and set oven timer for 10 minutes. Do not open oven door for the first 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, check if they've browned enough on top. Bake another 1-2 minutes if not. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before removing from molds. Serve lukewarm. 

I recently came back from a trip to Portugal. I'd been there before for a work conference and loved it so much I went back for vacation. It's a beautiful country with amazing people and even more amazing food. I discovered the francesinha (huge portion that must be shared or suffer the overeating consequences - but worth every calorie) but my ultimate favorite from my first visit and well into my second one remains the pastel de nata or the Portuguese custard tart. They call it egg tart but to me it's more accurate to call it the custard tart since the filling isn't eggy like a Chinese dim sum egg tart. But pure custard goodness.

What makes a good pastel de nata is the buttery, flaky pastry crust. And no one does that better than the Portuguese with their custard tarts (sorry, France, I know those are fighting words). Pasteis de nata is the plural of pastel de nata and it would be accurate to say I ate pasteis, not just pastel de nata.

One of the highlights of the trip is we had a cooking class at Compadre Cooking School in Lisbon and they taught us how to make a prawn appetizer, a codfish with cream casserole and of course, the pasteis de nata. It was a fantastic evening and if you're ever in Lisbon, I highly recommend booking yourself into one of their classes. The chefs were patient and excellent at what they do and they helped us create delicious food.

Plus I got to learn how to make pasteis de nata firsthand from very experienced chefs. This is a slightly different post in that instead of making this recipe myself when I got home, I'm posting pictures of the ones we made during our cooking class at Compadre Cooking School. Technically, I did help make them since my part was to make the custard. I didn't want to lose the recipe or the experience and memories so I'm posting the recipe and pictures from that evening since I don't know when I'm going to make them myself at home. But just to be authentic for when that day comes, when I got home, I ordered genuine pastel de nata tins (made in Portugal) from The Curated Pantry. I recommend getting it directly from their website rather than amazon as, even with shipping, The Curated Pantry is cheaper. (I'm not affiliated with them and don't make any money if you click on the link to buy it from them.) I got the smaller version as they mentioned that's what shops like Manteigaria use. I've had the pasteis de nata from Manteigaria in Porto, Portugal and can personally attest how excellent they are.

When you get the tins, they have instructions on how to season them before the first use. Basically you crank up your oven to 500 degrees F or as high as it'll go and bake the tins upside down on a baking sheet for 90 minutes. That burns off the solution they coat them with initially to prevent rust while they're on the shelves. The tins darken and are ready for use after that. I followed the instructions and have my authentic pastel de nata tins ready to go.

In terms of the dough, the chefs had already premade the laminated dough for the pastry shells. You roll out the dough into a rectangle then roll it into a tight log. You should be able to see the layers of dough and butter in the roll. Cut the log into finger-width rounds, place a round in the center of each tin and press outward so the shell goes evenly up the lip of each tin. Our chef did it expertly in two or three quick movements. Needless to say, we the students took a little bit longer, ha. Also, as with any laminated dough, keep the dough chilled until you're ready to cut and form them into the shells. That keeps the butter from warming up before you bake and minimizing the butter leakage during baking,

During our cooking class, another person in my tour group and I made the custard filling. After you make it, cool down the filling before you fill the shells, again to keep the butter in the dough from melting from a warm filling before you're ready to bake. Fill the shells about 2/3 full, not all the way to the top as the shells shrink a bit and the filling puffs a little so you don't want to overfill them.

You also want to place the baking sheet you'll be placing the tins on in the oven as it preheats. Having a hot baking pan to start with helps the custards bake more evenly, according to the Compadre Cooking chefs. Our chef instructor also said once you place the baking sheet back into the oven, set a timer for 10 minutes and don't even look at the oven until the timer goes off. That'll help you avoid the temptation to open the oven door and peek in. That would let the heat escape and negatively affect the baking. 

Once the 10 minutes are up, then you can look and decide if you need a few more minutes of baking time. You want to bake until you see the telltale brown spots on top of the custard and the pastry is browned.

Once you take them out of the oven, let them cool in the tins for 10 minutes then take them out. If you seasoned your pastel de nata tins properly, the tarts should come out easily. Proper care of the tins also says to just wipe them clean. Never put them in the dishwasher and only use soap and water if they're really encrusted and can't be wiped off with a paper towel. Make sure you dry them thoroughly to prevent rust.

So there you have pastel de nata. It's easily one of my top 3 favorite desserts now. As long as I can eat them in Portugal.