According to my Portuguese dad, I can make these pasteis de nata again and again and again! I am pretty chuffed with how they turned out since I had doubts throughout the entire process of making these traditional tarts. First of all, pasteis de nata are the epitome of the classic Portuguese sweet treat. So, no pressure!
In following the recipe, when mixing the flour, salt, and water in the stand mixer, my dough never achieved the soft pillowy stage I was hoping, or rather thinking, what it would be. My dough did pull away from the sides slightly but remained sticky; hence I feel I should have added more flour, which I didn’t at this stage.
Doubt started to set in! When working with the dough on the work surface, I needed to add a very generous amount of flour to stop the dough from sticking. At this stage, I probably added so much flour that I actually increased the amount of flour added to the dough significantly.
I found working with the dough a test of extreme patience! I remained calm (yet doubtful) and just kept working with it gently. I was never able to achieve the 18-by-18-inch square, no matter how hard I tried. It was closer to 14 inches.
The custard seemed quite thin, and even though the recipe mentioned it would be, I had my doubts it would firm up into a creamy custard.
While the tarts baked, the butter bubbled and oozed out of the dough and over the edge of the minis tin, causing lots of smoke in the extremely hot oven. I baked the minis for 9 minutes, and the custard was set, and the pastry was golden brown. I expected the custard to have a brown-speckled appearance (like the ones you buy commercially), but it remained an eggy yellow. For the larger tins, I baked the tarts for 15 minutes, and they, too, remained an eggy yellow with a golden brown pasty.
To my surprise, the pastry was super flaky and crispy, and it had that perfect crackly crunch that is the true mark of a great pastel de pata! And the custard? It set and was creamy, sweet, and deliciously perfect.
When my Portuguese mom said they tasted just like the pasteis de Belem (the most famous and original Portuguese custard tarts), then I knew we had a winner!
Talk about the best compliment ever! It was quite a bit of work to produce these little gems, but the end result was definitely worth the effort!