When my favorite youtuber Babish released an egg tart video, I knew I had to make these. But unusually for me, I decided to go with the simpler approach of using store bought puff pastry rather than making my own puff (something I have tried and failed at in the past). These seemed to be delightful morsels of buttery crust with a jelly like custard interior and everyone online kept using superlatives to describe them. So instead of going to Portugal or actually finding a Portuguese bakery, we took these on as a snowy day weekend project inspired by this Melissa Clark NYT recipe. I also watched and re-watched cupcake Jemma make these, because she is lovely and soothing.  The trick seems to be keeping the pastry cold and using an extremely hot oven to develop a shatteringly crisp crust. These would be good with any filling – I plan to try lemon curd next.

Makes 24 small tarts- start 2 days before you actually wish to consume the pasteis de nata

Step 1: Buy some all butter puff pastry (I used Trader joes) and buy a mini muffin pan ( I used Sur La Table where I also spent an unnecessary amount of money buying cooking tchotchkes)

Step 2: Roll out half your puff pastry (about 7-8 oz) into a 13×13 inch square or an 18×9 inch rectangle. Start rolling into a log from the larger side- so you should have an 18 inch log about an inch in diameter. Wrap in parchment and chill for several hours (or overnight)

Step 3- divide pastry log into half and then quarters and then thirds to get 24 pieces, Press the flat discs down and then along the side of the mini muffin pan. Cover with cling film and chill

Step 4- make the custard

Step 4a: read the instructions multiple times so you don’t goof up and have to throw away your first 2 attempts- hey, eggs are cheap, it’s ok. In retrospect- I should have made this in the blender- notes for next time.

Step 4b: There are 3 parts to this custard- assemble the 3 parts first. A cinnamon syrup ( 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 a cinnamon stick and 1/3 cup water- heat till sugar dissolves- take off heat, discard cinnamon), 3 egg yolks and a flour paste (start with 1/4 cup of all purpose flour and 3 tbsp of milk- whisk in 1/2 cup of scalding whole milk-  heated till bubbles just form- this is tougher than it looks and requires quite a lot of upper body strength)

Step 4c: Add sugar syrup to the flour mixture and return to the heat- Whisk continuously for 5 minutes till mixture is thickened and paste like without any lumps

Step 4d: add some of the flour mixture to the egg yolks whisking continuously- then add more gradually till both are combined. If you do this correctly- you will NOT have scrambled eggs but a smooth custard. If any custard calls for straining- it is this one- strain it.

Step 5- You remembered to heat your oven to 500F right? and the cookie sheet is on the bottom 1/3rd- good!. Add custard to the tart shells and bake for 15-20 minutes till custard is puffed up and lovely with some char and the pastry is crisp

So this recipe is tough! I have made many custards from scratch and this one was difficult! Was it worth it? Yes! Did we finish 24 tarts in one sitting? Of course we did!