Portuguese custard tarts

• 

Portuguese tarts are typically made with just milk, but these tarts have some cream in them as well. You can, however, just use milk if you prefer. They differ to ordinary custard tarts in that they have a crispy puff pastry. Makes 12.

Ingredients

1 sheet ready rolled puff pastry
Flour, for dusting

Custard

3 egg yolks (size 6/medium sized eggs)
75g (2 ½ oz) white sugar
2 teaspoons custard powder
100ml (3 ½ fl oz) milk
80ml (2 ½ fl oz) cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

1. Grease a 12-hole muffin tin and set aside.

2. Dust work surface with flour. Cut pastry sheet in half and place one half on top of the other. Roll up tightly, from the short end, to form a log.

3. Cut the log into 12 equal rounds (about 1cm / ½ inch thick). Dust surface with more flour if necessary. Using a rolling pin, roll each pastry round into a 10cm circle. The pastry will be quite thin. Place into prepared muffin tin, prick the base of each pastry case with a fork a couple of times, then refrigerate while making the custard.

4. Place the egg yolks, sugar and custard powder in a saucepan and whisk to combine. Continue whisking while adding the milk and cream in a slow, steady stream. Whisk until smooth.

5. Place the saucepan over a low to medium heat and cook, continuously whisking, until the mixture thickens, about 6-8 minutes. Remove from heat and add the vanilla extract.

5. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap (to prevent skin formation on top of custard) and set aside to cool.

6. Spoon custard into pastry cases. Bake 20-25 minutes, until the custard sets and blackens slightly in spots. Remove from the oven and leave for 5 minutes before removing from the tin and cooling on a wire rack.