Name: Portuguese Custard Tarts
Total time: 125 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: Portuguese
Ingredients: 200g plain flour (plus extra for dusting); 1tbsp caster sugar; 110ml cold water; 100g unsalted butter, chilled; 250g caster sugar; 250ml water; 1 cinnamon stick; Lemon rind from 1/2 a lemon; 25g plain Flour; 12g cornflour; 300ml whole milk; 4 egg yolks; 1 whole egg; 1 vanilla pod

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Portuguese Custard Tarts

Serves: 12

Course: Desserts

Recipe type: Tarts & pastries

Total time (min.): 125

Indulge yourself in these rich and creamy Portuguese Custard Tarts, with their flaky pastry crust and irresistibly smooth custard filling.

Tool

Food Processors or Titanium Patissier XL

Ingredients

For the pastry:

200g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)
1tbsp caster sugar
110ml cold water
100g unsalted butter, chilled

For the custard filling:

250g caster sugar
250ml water
1 cinnamon stick
Lemon rind from ½ a lemon
25g plain Flour
12g cornflour
300ml whole milk
4 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1 vanilla pod

Method

1 - Grease the muffin tin with melted butter.
2 - Add 200g of plain flour and 1 tbsp of caster sugar to your Kenwood Chef bowl fitted with the K-beater. Start on speed 1 whilst gradually adding the cold water.
3 - Once mixed in, increase the speed to 2 and mix for 1 minute, if the mixture is too dry to form a dough carefully add a tiny amount of water and mix again- the dough should be firm but not sticky.
4 - Wrap the dough and chill for 20 minutes.
5 - Fit the food processor attachment to the high-speed outlet with the coarse grating plate and grate the unsalted butter.
6 - Remove the dough from the fridge, transfer to a lightly floured surface. Roll it into a rectangle approximately 30 x 40cm.
7 - Sprinkle half of the grated butter over the surface of the dough.
8 - With the shorter edge facing you, fold the top third toward you and the bottom third up over it.
9 - Turn the dough 90 degrees, roll out to the same size again, add the remaining grated butter.
10 - With the shorter edge facing you, fold the top third toward you and the bottom third up over it.
11 - Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
12 - Repeat the rolling out and folding process twice more. Wrap and chill for another 30 minutes.
13 - Meanwhile, add the caster sugar, water, cinnamon and lemon rind into a medium saucepan. Place over a high heat, bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for 3 minutes.
14 - Carefully transfer the syrup to a jug, set aside to chill completely in the fridge, leave the cinnamon and lemon peel to infuse in the syrup.
15 - Preheat the oven to 230°C.
16 - Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out to a thickness of 5mm. Using a pastry cutter, cut out 12 circles big enough to fill the sides of the muffin tin.
17 - Line the tin with the pastry. Return the pastry cases to the fridge whilst you make the filling.
18 - Combine the plain flour and cornflour in a small mixing bowl and add 80ml of milk, stirring until completely smooth.
19 - Add the remaining 220ml of milk to a large saucepan, bring to the boil stirring regularly.
20 - Once boiling remove from the heat, add the contents of the saucepan to the mixer bowl fitted with the whisk.
21 - Whisk on speed 3 and whilst whisking, pour in the contents of the small mixing bowl.
22 - Increase the speed to 6 and whisk for 30 seconds, or until fully combined.
23 - Halve the vanilla pod, scrape with a knife to remove the seeds.
24 - In a medium bowl, add the eggs, eggs yolk and the seeds from the vanilla pod and beat with a fork to combine.
25 - Remove the cinnamon stick and lemon rind from the chilled sugar syrup.
26 - Start the machine on speed 3, whilst whisking add the syrup into the milk mixture, continue whisking whilst you add the contents of the medium bowl, whisk for a further 20 seconds on speed 6.
27 - Pour the custard mixture into the pastry cases, filling each one almost to the top.
28 - Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the custard looks puffed up and scorched on top and the pastry is golden brown.
29 - Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin, take care they will be extremely hot.

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