cook.
Pastéis de Nata
Cooked custard in a coiled pastry shell, blistered black in the hottest oven you have
Ingredients
320 g all-butter puff pastry
200 g caster sugar
120 ml water
1 cinnamon stick
1 strip of lemon peel
250 ml whole milk
30 g plain flour
6 egg yolks
ground cinnamon and icing sugar, to serve
Method
Make the syrup: bring the sugar, water, cinnamon stick and lemon peel to the boil and cook to exactly 104°C on a thermometer. Guessing here is what makes the custard weep or set rubbery. Take it off and leave it to infuse.
Make the milk base: whisk the flour into a splash of the cold milk until smooth, then whisk in the rest. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens to a loose paste. Take it off the heat.
Combine: fish out the cinnamon and peel, then pour the hot syrup into the milk base in a thin stream, whisking hard. Let it cool to warm, not hot, or the yolks will scramble.
Whisk in the yolks and pass the whole thing through a sieve. It should be thin enough to pour - it sets in the oven, not in the bowl.
Shape the shells: roll the pastry into a tight log, cut it into 12 discs, and press each one cut-side down into a muffin tin, thumbing it up the sides thinner than feels right. The spiral is what gives the flaky shell.
Heat the oven as high as it goes - 250°C minimum, 290°C if your oven allows. Put the tin in while it heats so it is properly hot.
Fill three-quarters full and bake for 12-15 minutes, until the tops are blistered with black spots and the custard is still wobbling in the centre.
Eat them warm, dusted with cinnamon and icing sugar. They are at their best about ten minutes out of the oven and they do not keep.
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