Portuguese Custard Tarts
A few days ago, Edith emails me a recipe for Portuguese Custard Tarts I was thinking, okay I’ll try this one out later in the week. So here I am, coming out of hiding with a successful batch, a group of happy guinea pigs, and a long overdue post.
Makes 12
Ingredients
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
3/4 cup cream
1/2 cup water
1 strip of lemon rind
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 sheet ready made puff pastry
Preheat the oven to hot, 220 degrees Celsius. Grease a 12 hole (1/3 cup/80mL) muffin pan.
Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a small saucepan until combined. Gradually whisk in the cream andwater until smooth. Add the lemon rind, stir over medium heat until the mixture boil and thickens. Remove pan from the heat, remove and discard the rind, stir in the vanilla essence and then transfer the custard to a medium-sized bowl. Cover the surface of the custard with plastic wrap (to prevent a skin from forming as the custard cools).
Cut the puff pastry in half, stack the two halves on top of each other and then roll the pastry up tightly, and cut the log into twelve 1cm rounds. Lay pastry cut side up and roll each round to about 10cm width using a rolling pin. Press the rounds into the prepared muffin pans with your fingers.
Transfer spoonfuls of the cooled custard into the pastry cases and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until browned well. Stand tarts for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool. Tastes best when served fresh!