Saturday 30 April 2016

Portuguese Egg Tarts









I made these for breakfast, but you can eat them any time of the day.  It's never a bad time to eat little egg tarts... I might get that printed on a T-shirt.





Portuguese Egg Tarts

slightly adapted from here
Makes 15

For the Rough Puff Pastry:


200g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
200g chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons chilled water


For the Syrup:

250g caster sugar
1 stick cinnamon
1 thick, long strip of lemon peel
I vanilla pod


For the Custard:

25g plain flour
12g cornflour
300ml full cream milk
4 egg yolks, plus one whole egg


Make the Pastry:

Place flour and salt in a bowl, add butter and rub through with fingertips until the mixture resembles large breadcrumbs. Add enough cold water, cutting it with a butter knife, to form a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll out dough into a 30 x 15 cm rectangle. Fold in the two short ends to meet in the centre, then fold in again to make a book fold. Roll the pastry into a 30 x 15cm rectangle again, then repeat folding process. Refrigerate as a small rectangle for a further 30 minutes before using.

Make the Syrup:
Put the sugar, cinnamon and lemon peel into a medium saucepan. Split and scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod. Reserve the seeds for the custard and add the pod to the sugar mixture. Put the pan on medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the syrup to cool completely. Once cool, remove the cinnamon, lemon and vanilla pod.


Make the Custard:

Combine both flours in a mixing bowl. Pour some of the milk in and whisk to form a paste. Bring the remaining milk to a boil over low heat. Gradually add the hot milk to the flour mixture, whisking continuously, until smooth. Then whisk in the syrup. Add the egg, egg yolks and the reserved vanilla seeds. Whisk until the mixture is smooth and well combined. Set aside.


Make the Tarts:

Preheat the oven to 250C (or to your ovens highest temperature). 

Roll the pastry out as thin as you can to a large rectangle. Brush the surface with water and roll the pastry, using one of the long edges, into a tight jelly roll shape. Cut the pastry into 15 even portions.

Press the portions into the holes of a cupcake pan, using your fingers to work the pastry up the sides of the pans.

Pour the custard evenly into the pastry cups until almost full. Bake for 20 minutes. The pastry should be golden and crisp and the custard should be set and scorched in places. Allow the tarts to cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.

You can use a spray bottle to mist the tops with a little water as they come out of the oven to make the tops shiny if you like, but it`s totally optional.

3 comments:

  1. I want that t-shirt too please!! & portuguese egg tarts are really nice to eat anytime of the day. It's been a long time since I've made some, it's time!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. one word- YUM!!!

    ReplyDelete