Portuguese custard tarts to make tonight

Portugal is playing in the semi final tonight, which presents the perfect opportunity to scoff one of Portugal’s most iconic foods. These meltingly flaky burnt custard tarts are known as ‘pasteis de nata‘. My recent trip to Porto and the Douro reminded me of their sunshiney succulence. This recipe is a cheaty way of making the custard tarts. Enjoy with a cup of tea or a port and tonic during the game. Wales are their opponents tonight, so I’ve got my fingers crossed. Wouldn’t it be lovely to see Wales in the final!
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This recipe first appeared in Metro.

Makes 12

175ml whole milk
225ml double cream or creme fraîche
100g caster sugar
3 egg yolks
2 tbsp cornflour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or paste
1/2 tsp lemon essence (optional)
300g ready made all butter puff pastry ready rolled
Unsalted butter for greasing
Plain flour for dusting

Equipment
12 hole muffin tray
Heat proof bowl
Small saucepan

1. Put the milk and cream into a saucepan and heat gently until almost boiling.
2. In a heatproof bowl, whisk together sugar, egg yolks, cornflour and vanilla extract or flavourings. Pour in the hot milk mixture, whisking all the time.
3. Return the custard mixture back to the saucepan and heat gently, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. When you can draw a distinct line on the back of the spoon, the custard is thick enough.
4. Take off the heat, cover with parchment paper to prevent a skin forming (optional) and let it cool.
5. Preheat the oven to 200ºC. 
6. Grease the holes of the muffin tray.
7. Unfurl the ready rolled puff pastry on a lightly floured work surface, removing the greaseproof paper. Then roll it up again as if it were a Swiss roll. Cut the roll into 5cm-wide slices. Up end each slice so that the coils of the roll are visible.
8. Using a rolling pin, roll out each coil to a diameter of around 10cm.
9. Tuck each pastry circle into the greased muffin hole. Spoon the cooled custard into the pastry shells, filling each one almost full.
10. Bake for 25 minutes.
11. For authentic caramelised tops, place the tray under a hot grill to brown.
12. Eat the same day.

For more of my baking recipes, check out my book MsMarmitelover’s Secret Tea Party.