Pastel De Nata - Sweet Pastry From Portugal

Hi everyone,

I came across these pastries in Portugal many years ago. They were sold literally everywhere.

Pastel de nata is a delicious sweet pastry with a crisp and flaky dough forming the cup that encases a soft and tender custard interior. So good!

I am not claiming that I have the original, traditional recipe, but after having tried multiple versions, I found the right one for me that is relatively easy to make and has a magnificent flavor, this is what I will be sharing with you today.

Let’s jump in!

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 60 g cold butter
• 150 g all purpose flour
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 65 ml ice cold water
• 80 g cold butter (for laminating)

 For the custard:

• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg yolks
• 50 g powdered sugar
• 80 ml full fat milk
• 160 g cream
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

powdered sugar for dusting

butter for greasing the pan

 Utensils:

• stand mixer
• rolling pin
• parchment paper
• kitchen scale
• clingfilm
• beaker
• small hand whisk
• 12-cup muffin pan (or proper pastel de nata molds)

Cut the larger piece of butter (80 g) into 4, roughly equal slices.

Place them next to each other on a piece of parchment.

Fold the parchment into a 12 x 16 cm “bag” with the butter inside. Grab the rolling pin and roll the butter blocks until the bag is evenly filled with the butter. Place it into the fridge.

Basically what we are doing is forming the butter into a rectangle and it is a lot easier to do with the butter trapped inside the pre-formed parchment. 

Dump flour into the mixing bowl and add the cold butter cut into small cubes (the colder the butter, the easier it is to work with).

Add salt and sugar and mix with the flat beater attachment until crumbly. Add water and give it another mix until the dough just comes together.

Tip the dough onto a piece of parchment, quickly form it into a disc, or even better: a rectangle (a rectangular prism for mathematicians out there). This way it will be easier to roll and form further on.

Wrap it up and place it into the fridge for 40 minutes. (Or if you are in a hurry, you may speed things up by putting the dough into the freezer for 15-20 minutes.)

Next up is wrapping the butter slab into the dough.

Roll the cold dough evenly into a rectangle that is a little more than double the size of the butter slab. Place the butter on one half of the dough, fold over the other half and pinch the dough all around to seal it.

Butter is used for creating those flaky layers in the dough.

Right after wrapping the butter into the dough, gently roll the dough to a rectangle sized about 18 x 28 cm.

Then make a so called letter fold. Pick up one of the short sides of the dough and fold it a third of the way over the rest of the dough.

Then grab the opposite side and fold on top like you would do with a letter as the name suggests.

Press down with your fingers a bit so that it is nice and tight, wrap into a parchment and put it back into the fridge for 40 minutes (or into the freezer for half the time). 

Repeat laminating 3 more times: after sufficent time in the fridge roll, letter fold the dough and place it back into the fridge for another 40 minutes.

Following the fourth letter fold, after the dough has had a proper rest in the fridge, it is time to get onto the next step.

Flatten the dough to about 3 mm thickness (roughly 22 x 38 cm rectangle).

Roll it tightly into a log from the shorter side.

Wrap it into clingfilm and place back in the fridge for one hour. 

Add the egg, egg yolks and vanilla into a beaker, mix with a small hand whisk. Add the rest of the ingredients of the custard and combine. Place it into the fridge until further use. 

Remove the dough-log from the fridge. Cut the ends straight and slice it into 12 uniform sized pieces. I actually measured it with a ruler. 

Grease the muffin pan with butter. Place one piece of dough into each cup of the muffin pan. Wet your thumb and forefinger with cold water. Press down your thumb /forefinger (whichever you feel more comfortable with) into the middle of the dough piece and gently, pressing from the inside outwards, form the cups.

Place the pan into the freezer for 20 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 210 °

Remove from the freezer, fill the cups about ¾ way to the top with the custard. 

Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes until they seem a bit charred on top.

The last photo was taken right after I took them out of the oven. They puff up, but will deflate in a few minutes. 

Serve at room temperature, dusted with powdered sugar. Enjoy!