Recipe | Portugese custard tarts (Pastéis de nata)

Easy to make and beyond delicious, these little delights are great for breakfast, elevenses, afternoon tea – or any time of day at all, really

Portugese custard tarts (Pastéis de nata)

Makes 12

Butter, for greasing
110g caster sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
3 egg yolks
225ml double cream
175ml milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 sheet of ready-rolled all-butter puff pastry
Ground cinnamon, for dusting
Icing sugar, for dusting

1 Grease a 12-hole muffin tin (unless using a non-stick tin). In a saucepan, mix together the caster sugar, cornflour and egg yolks. Gradually add the cream and milk, whisking until smoothish. Don’t worry about lumps – they will whisk out.

2 Stir over a medium heat until the mixture becomes very thick and, just before it comes to the boil, stop whisking, remove from heat, stir in vanilla extract and tip into a bowl.

3 Cover with cling film directly on the custard to prevent a skin forming. Leave to cool.

4 Preheat oven to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6. Unroll the pastry with the long edge closest to you (landscape format), dust with a little cinnamon and cut in half vertically. Put one piece on top of the other and, starting from the bottom (shortest) edge, tightly roll up the pastry pieces into a sausage shape.

5 Slice into 12 evenly sized discs. Use a rolling pin or your fingers to flatten out the discs into thin circles. Press into a muffin tin and spoon in the cold custard.

6 Bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 mins until the pastry is golden and the custard is puffed up, bubbling and golden in parts. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins (they will shrink down as they cool) before removing. Caramelise the tops with a cook’s blowtorch if they’re not as browned as you’d like. Sometimes they are, sometimes they’re not!

7 Serve either warm or at room temperature with a last-minute dusting of icing sugar and ground cinnamon.

Cook’s note: Get ahead by making the custard (in steps 1, 2 and 3) up to three days ahead and keeping in the fridge. You can prepare as far as the end of step 5 any time on the day of baking. The tarts can also be baked several days ahead and eaten warmed through or simply served at room temperature.

Recipe from The Get-Ahead Cook by Jane Lovett (Apicius Publishing)

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Recipe | Pear & quince crumble with almond custard

You can make this with just pears if that’s all you have to hand, but quince adds a beautiful aromatic note. 

The quince needs to be poached first, to soften it; if your pears are unripe, add them to the poaching for the last 10–20 minutes, or until they’re soft. This recipe presumes ripe pears. The topping is as dark, complex and rubbly as the apple and blackberry one (page 47 of the November 2017 issue) is light and simple.

Serves 4–6
1 quince, peeled, cored and quartered
2 tbsp sugar
8 ripe pears, peeled, cored and quartered
2 tbsp apple juice
Juice of 1 lemon 

For the crumble: 
75g butter
150g spelt/rye flour
75g demerara sugar
100g oats
1 tsp ground ginger
100g almonds, roughly chopped

For the almond custard:
There are a few ways to make this, using the vanilla custard recipe (opposite) as your starting point. In summer you can infuse the milk with a handful of peach or nectarine leaves before you start on the custard: scald the milk with the leaves in it and leave to infuse while it cools, then strain and use the milk as per the recipe. For a cheat’s version, add a little almond essence once the custard is made, tasting as you add. And for a grown- ups-only version, add a shot or two of amaretto to the finished custard. 

 1 Poach the quince in a saucepan of water with the sugar for around 30 mins, or until softened. Slice. Meanwhile, toss the pears in the apple and lemon juice.
2 Preheat oven to 190C/Fan 170C/ 375F. Tip the fruit into a baking dish and pour over around 240ml of the quince poaching juice or some apple juice.
3 For the crumble, rub the butter roughly into the flour, then add the sugar, oats, ginger and almonds and rub them in a little, too. Sprinkle the mixture over the fruit and bake in the preheated oven for around 30 mins, or until the top has browned.

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More comfort food:

Recipe: Proper custard

Top your pie or crumble with this delicately f lavoured custard made with your own fair hands, from Vanilla by Janet Sawyer.

Serves 4–6

100g golden caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour
250ml whole milk
125ml clotted or double cream
4 egg yolks, beaten
1⁄2–1 tsp vanilla paste (or seeds of 1⁄2–1 vanilla pod)

1. Mix the sugar and cornflour in a bowl. Whisk in the milk.
2. In a heavy-bottomed pan, heat the cream gently, adding the milk mixture a little at a time. Slowly bring to the boil, stirring constantly, and reduce heat when it starts to thicken.
3. Pour a little of the hot milk mixture onto the egg yolks, stirring well, then gradually stir this back into the remaining milk in the pan.
4. Gently bring the mixture back to the boil and stir in the vanilla paste or seeds. Serve the custard immediately, or cover with cling film to stop a skin forming, and reheat gently when needed.

Variations: To pimp your custard, add the finely grated zest of half an orange, a pinch of saffron or a tbsp of toasted flaked almonds.