Do not do this recipe at residence until you’re determined! Which is how we really feel. Far from a purveyor of “pasteis de nata,” how else can we satiate our yearning for these divine custard tarts?
We opened with trepidation “Cozinha Tradicional Portuguesa” (Portuguese Traditional Cooking), the imposing tome of vernacular recipes compiled by the legendary Maria de Lurdes Modesto. The previous pages creaked, stunned to be turned with such urgency.
Modesto’s directions assume we all know what we’re doing. They’re extra like jazz lead sheets than classical music scores. She tells us the important thing parts of the recipe and expects us to improvise the remaining.
The substances are humble: flour, butter, cream, eggs, sugar, water, and lemon. We began by making a model of tough puff pastry, folding the dough to create delicate layers of butter and flour. After a number of hours of labor, we have been rewarded with two dozen scrumptious pasteis de nata.
All the trouble that went into making these pastries made us respect Portugal much more. It is a spot the place it’s peculiar to seek out the extraordinary: heavenly pasteis de nata bought for a modest worth in each avenue nook.
Here’s the recipe.
Ingredients for the puff pastry: 500 grams of flour, 500 grams of butter, 2 to three deciliters of water, and salt.
Ingredients for the filling: 5 deciliters of cream, 8 egg yolks, 3 tablespoons of flour, 200 grams of sugar, and one lemon peel.
Melt the salt in heat water and divide the butter into three equal parts. Place the flour on a stone desk and make a gap in the course of the flour to pour the water. Kneed the combination till it turns into homogeneous and let it relaxation for 20 minutes.
Next, stretch the dough right into a sq. kind. Knead among the butter till it has the identical consistency because the dough. Spread one third of the butter over the dough, leaving a strip of 1 inch on the edges of the sq.. Fold the dough from backside to prime and from left to proper, ensuring that the fold suits completely at edges and on the perimeters. Stretch the dough once more forming a sq.. Repeat the operation twice, first utilizing the second third after which the final third of the butter.
Stretch the dough as thinly as attainable. Cut it in stripes and fold into lengthy rolls. Cut the rolls into items of two to three centimeters. Place the dough on the heart of a small mildew. Moist your thumb in water and unfold the dough to the perimeters of the mildew.
To put together the filling, combine all of the substances and convey them to a boil. Remove from the warmth and wait till the combination cools down. Fill the molds with the cream. Place the molds in a highly regarded oven (250 to 300 levels centigrade). Once the custards come out of the oven and funky, you possibly can sprinkle them with icing sugar and cinnamon.
