Happy Monday! I’m FINALLY joining the GBBO Bake Along hosted by Amanda. This weekend, I helped a friend paint her new home, but I also procrastinated from finishing my PhD proposal to instead bake these beautiful little Portuguese treats, pastéis de nata. Or pastel de nata, as I knew them before.
I followed the recipe from Paul and all seemed to go well. I made pastry quite a few times 2 years ago, so I had that down no problem. The custard was the hardest part for me. I almost thought of going and buying some at the store. But that would be cheating, of course!
The main issue I found with the custard was that while doing my syrup, I went in a bit blind because it said to boil until the sugar reached the ‘short thread stage or 106-112C’. Yeah I had no clue what that meant! But I pretended I was actually on GBBO and soldiered on, clueless, just like the contestants.
I seemed to have made custard for about 100 tarts, so I had a lot leftover in the end. The Brit got on a bit of a sugar high trying to consume nearly half of it after dinner.
All in all, I’m so happy with how it turned out! For a technical challenge, I think I pretty much nailed it! I could have used a lesson on how to press the pastry in the moulds, but except from that, everything seemed to turn out okay!
Have you ever attempted these? Have you ever eaten pastéis de nata?xx
