If you’ve ever craved those deliciously flaky Portuguese custard tarts you sampled on holiday but felt too lazy to mess around with making pastry and custard from scratch, this recipe is your new best friend. It’s a super simple, cheat’s version inspired by the classic - same golden, caramelised top and creamy centre, just way less fuss. All you need are a few basic ingredients and a muffin tin, and you’ll have a tray of warm, bakery-worthy tarts in no time.
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Yields:
12 serving(s)
Prep Time:
15 mins
Cook Time:
20 mins
Total Time:
35 mins
Cal/Serv:
141
Ingredients
320g
sheet puff pastry
350g
fresh vanilla custard
1/4tsp.
ground cinnamon
Finely grated zest 1/4 lemon
YOU WILL ALSO NEED
Plain flour, to dust
Directions
Step 1Preheat oven to 240°C (220°C fan) mark 9. Unroll pastry and fold in 1⁄2, short edge to short edge. Roll pastry up tightly, starting from the joined short edges, to form a log. Wrap in the baking parchment the pastry came in and chill for 5-10min, to firm up.
Step 2Meanwhile, mix the custard, cinnamon and lemon zest in a jug.
Step 3Unwrap the pastry log and cut into 12 x 2cm discs. Lightly flour a surface and roll out the slices to rough 6-7cm circles. Line the holes of a 12-hole muffin tin with the pastry circles.
Step 4Divide custard mixture between the pastry cases, filling up to 5mm from the top (as the custard rises when it cooks). Bake for 20min, or until the pastry is golden and the custard is puffed and browned on top (it will sink on cooling).
Step 5Leave to cool in the tin for 5min before carefully running a knife around the edge of each tart to loosen, then transferring them to a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
GH TIP
Remove your pastry from the fridge to come to room temperature for 10min (or according to pack instructions) before unrolling, to minimise cracking.
WANT TO TAKE IT A STEP FURTHER?
Try sprinkling the puff pastry sheet with a little sugar and cinnamon before rolling up and slicing, just watch to make sure the caramelising sugar oozing out of the pastry bases doesn't burn!
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
