Portuguese Custard tarts

[achookwoman]

DH says these are the best custard tarts that he has ever had. It must be the 2 full days I spent researching recipes. Thanks to the help by members of the Forum, I was able to work out what might be successfully converted to the TMX. The BIG question is, should they have just vanilla or should they be flavored with lemon zest and cinnamon. The ones I made today had vanilla and the ones I will make tomorrow will have the lemon zest and cinnamon. The Puff pastry I used was the frozen butter Puff Pastry from the Super market, but more importantly I used Bill Granger's method for making the cases.

Ingredients

3 egg yolks
115g caster sugar
2 Tablespoons of cornflour
230 mls of cream
170 mls milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract or paste
1 sheet of frozen Puff Pastry.

1 egg and 1 Tablespoon of water for egg wash.

Into TMX bowl place
egg yolks
caster sugar,
cornflour
cream and milk
Zap speed 5 / 5 seconds
Put in Butterfly
cook 13 mins/sp 1 1/2/90 o
Add vanilla and stir to incorporate.

set aside in bowl, covered with plastic so that skin does not form. Cool in fridge. (This could be done several hours before making the tarts)

Set oven to heat 200 o C

Remove 1 sheet of pastry from freezer and when defrosted, cut in half.
Place one half on top of other half and leave for 5 mins.
Firmly roll, from shortest end to other shortest end.
mark 12, 1cm. sections along roll. Cut through these marks.
On a well floured mat roll each small disc of Puff Pastry to a 10 cm. circle.
Fit these into a 12 hole , 80ml. muffin tin that has been lightly sprayed with Canola oil. My tin is 8 cm in diameter at the top .
Brush edges of Puff Paste with egg wash.

(If you need to wait for custard to cool , place the tin in the fridge.)

Fill each case with 2 Tablespoons of custard.
Bake for 20 mins.
During last 5 mins turn oven to grill to create the small brown patches that characteristic of these tarts.
STAND AND WATCH AND REMOVE TARTS IF GETTING TOO BROWN.
Leave in tin for 5 mins and then remove to a wire rack.

Best served just warm. Could gently reheat - Have found they reheat well, in both oven and microwave.

Members' comments
Meagan - I do the mwoc ones and use the hot/warm custard straight into the pastry. Could you use the custard warm chookie?

Chookie - Megan,  I have to admit that the custard was not quite cold.  The base was still crisp.  I think I will make the custard in the morning next time.  Not a lot of trouble making the cases. Quite an easy recipe.  Good not having to pre cook the cases.The TMX recipe is for 16.  An odd number,  as there are 12 in a muffin tray.

Meagan - Yes the mwoc recipe custard makes more than enough for 12 muffin size. I can make approx 12 mini ones too though with the mixture. But I don't precook the bases first either.

MM - As I Live in Portugal (and have done for 17 years now), I guarantee that these tarts are delicious. Best eaten warm, whilst the pastry is still crisp. In Portugal we also sprinkle icing sugar and cinnamon on the top. Bliss...

Chookie - MM,  I am all confused.  Should the tarts be flavoured with lemon and cinnamon,  or  vanilla.   Tomorrow I will make some with the lemon and cinnamon.  I would like to know what is authentic.

MM - flavoured with vanilla in cooking. Sprinkled with cinnamon on the top, just before eating.  In Portugal the cinnamon is always served apart, as it is not for everyone. It comes in little sachets.

Chookie - We tried  these last night with the cinnamon sprinkled on top,  and this is the way to go.  I let every one add their own cinnamon.

Hally - 1st attempt today. they taste great. did drop a couple getting them out. The boys are going to gobble these up.

dede -  I don't have a grill function in my oven so didn't do the grill part. They are pretty easy to make too. Now to wait for them to cool down to try them. I think I over filled them a bit as they bubbled up over the top. They burnt a little where they over flowed, doesn't taste burnt at all. Very yummy. DH gave them the thumbs up.

courton - Thank you for a delicious recipe Chookie. Only one query...I had nearly a cup of custard left over after placing 2 tablespoons in each tart. Should it have set more? My tarts also took much longer than 5 mins to get brown spots. Did you have the grill on fan grill?

snappy - I just made mini tarts to take into work for a fundraising morning tea tomorrow.  They are good but I think a little too mini - more pastry than custard.  I only chose to make them that small so that they would be 'bite' size but I think I will definitely make them larger next time. I made the custard using only powdered milk - no cream and still turned out just fine so I wouldn't bother going out to buy cream next time.

frazzled mum - I made these little beauties for desserts yesterday. It went in a snap. Hubby likes them so much, he put an order for more of these tarts for next week. Although I used 400ml of milk and no cream. Just to cut on the calories. Still yummy and smooth.
I also put a cinnamon quill when cooking and put tmx to reverse to avoid chopping up the quill. Might try with lemon zest next time as per chookie's idea. I found it hard to roll the pastry to round shapes. Ended up with wonky oval-ly shaped rather than nice round ones. Thus might try use cookie cutter for better presentation next time

ES - Chookie, these are fantastic. These are the best things I have made so far.
I made them in my Thermo Chef, so I reduced the temperature to 80C and increased the speed to 3 when cooking the custard for the 13 minutes. I have trouble with the TC burning custard, and only a little caught on the bottom, so next time I might drop the temp even further for part of the cooking time. I love the fact that I got 12 tarts from one sheet of puff pastry, and the filling was just right to fill all 12 tarts.

Wonder - I'm making these at the moment and the custard is quite thin, is that correct? It's been in the fridge for about an hour and has thickened up a little more but I was expecting a very thick custard. Should I re cook it with more cornflour or another egg yolk?Well the custard did set a little more in the oven but still a little runny. I also ended up with too much custard so just filled the tarts a little more and so they spilled over and made a bit of a mess. The pasty is a great way to get more pastry from one sheet but quite timing consuming I found. DH and I also found the custard too sweet so I might not add as much sugar next time. DD and her boyfriend loved them and DS wasn't a fan - I can just never tell with my kids, custard is DS favourite food but he said he didn't like the pastry and that was after he had eaten 14 mini quiches using the same pastry.

chrissa - Made these this morning.  They were delicious.

MF - Eventually made these today and well worth the wait.  Tasted exactly as I remember from when I was last in Praia Da Luz staying with my BF's daughter who lives there. A perfect recipe Chookie and made half vanilla and the other half lemon zest with cinammon . The only change I made was sprinkling some castor sugar between the pastry layers. Thank you so much for the recipe and conversion.

kezza - Made these on the weekend.  What a fantastic recipe.  Thanks chookie.  Followed your instructions to the 't' and they were perfect.  Thumbs up from everyone in the family.

[dede]

Chookie these look great. And pretty easy to make as well. I would say they would disappear quickly in this house as we all love custard

[achookwoman]

Dede you could easily make double.  Yes they are very easy and the custard is just the right amount for the cases.  You could use the left over whites in your new rolls.   That is what I am going to do. thanks.

[dede]

Oh good idea Chookie. I'm glad your going to try them, maybe if they need any tweaking you can let me know as you have a lot more experience than me

[Meagan]

Interesting puff technique I will try that next time.

[Tasty]

They look great Chookie but probably this method is too time consuming for me.

[courton]

Actually, I have used bill granger's pastry method before and it does not take that much time. Can't wait to try this version.

[courton]

Awaiting your verdict on the other version Chookie.

[judydawn]

If DH says these are the best custard tarts he has ever had Chookie - you have to believe him. You definitely know when you are eating a good custard tart.

 If he wants a man sized custard tart, next time you come to Adelaide I'll buy him a Balfours custard tart - this is my DD1's favourite bought custard tart and she has never been able to find one in Victoria to equal it.

[Meagan]

I do the mwoc ones and use the hot/warm custard straight into the pastry. Could you use the custard warm chookie?

[JulieO]

Love the look of these Chookie, have copied the recipe to try. 

[achookwoman]

Megan,  I have to admit that the custard was not quite cold.  The base was still crisp.  I think I will make the custard in the morning next time.  Not a lot of trouble making the cases. Quite an easy recipe.  Good not having to pre cook the cases.The TMX recipe is for 16.  An odd number,  as there are 12 in a muffin tray.

[Meagan]

Yes the mwoc recipe custard makes more than enough for 12 muffin size. I can make approx 12 mini ones too though with the mixture. But I don't precook the bases first either.

[Cuilidh]

I love a good custard tart - we found a great baker who made these when we lived in Hong Kong and have never found any as good here in Australia - almost worth going back to Hong Kong for a visit just to get some tarts!  Strangely enough, we never found any decent ones in Macau, even though it was a Portuguese colony - maybe all the bakers moved to Hong Kong.

[Master Moderator]

As I Live in Portugal (and have done for 17 years now), I guarantee that these tarts are delicious. Best eaten warm, whilst the pastry is still crisp. In Portugal we also sprinkle icing sugar and cinnamon on the top. Bliss...

If you ever come to Lisbon, then the best place to eat these (where this recipe was invented) is : http://www.pasteisdebelem.pt/en.html

I am going to make these, this weekend... (tummy rumbling)