Musiri Is it wrong that nearly a year after my trip to Lisbon I still dream about pastéis de nata? Seriously, I think about them all the time—the warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven, creamy vanilla custard tarts with light, flaky crusts. Sprinkled with a little cinnamon and powdered sugar, the tops gently browned by the oven, they literally melt in your mouth.
http://justrpg.com/default.asp?pid=606 In case you’ve never heard of them, pastéis de nata are small egg tart pastries that can be found in cafés all over Portugal. They were first made by a pair of nuns in the early 1800s at the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, a monasteryjust outside of Lisbon. The most famous ones are still baked at the Casa Pastéis de Belém, located next to the monastery, although I bought and enjoyed them daily—morning, noon, and night—from a café only a block away from my hotel.
When we left Lisbon, I even had the café wrap up six pastéis to take home with me. Of course, when I got back to Los Angeles they were a smushed mess in my suitcase…but that didn’t stop me from greedily gobbling them up.
So now that it’s been a year, and unfortunately I have no immediate plans to return to Portugal, I decided to bake some of these delicious treats myself. Obviously I’m not a pastry chef, but with a recipe I found online I’m going to give it the old college try. I will post the results soon!
Here are a couple pictures of pastéis de nata to get you salivating. Click on the thumbnails for a closer look.
Here’s a shortcut to my follow-up story!
I have this on my list, will certainly try this delicacy – I see it’s quite famous, since so many travel bloggers are writing about it!