Pastries from Belém: the recipe for the most famous dessert in Portugal

Pastels de nata do not contain cream, but they are a super-success in Portuguese pastry with almost two centuries of history. This is how they are prepared at A Casa Portuguesa

Portugal may be a small country, and its days of colonial expansion may have passed centuries ago, but it possesses a weapon capable of conquering the whole world. It’s called pastel de Belém or pastel de nata, and it’s impossible not to succumb to its crispy puff pastry and its creamy filling made of egg, milk, and sugar. Created in the first half of the 19th century in the Lisbon neighborhood of Belém, these small dishes filled with pleasure are the greatest success of Portuguese pastry. The authentic ones are said to be sold only at the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, where the original recipe is kept under five locks, but the truth is that there are equally good (or even better) versions in other bakeries throughout Portugal.

In Spain, you can also find good pastéis de nata, made by Portuguese bakers who have a bit of saudade for the sweets of their homeland. At A Casa Portuguesa, a wonderful shop in Barcelona, they prepare them artisanally, and unsurprisingly, they sell tens of thousands of them every year. If you want to see the wonderful process of how this gem is created, watch the video above.

Pastéis de Nata from A Casa Portuguesa

The quantities for the cream are for 20 pastries. The puff pastry amounts are for 100 because if we make less, it doesn’t allow us to achieve the ideal dimension for the folds. The excess can be stored in the freezer and used for empanadas, quiches, or whatever you like. Since the process is long and labor-intensive, you can buy prepared puff pastry (but we’ll leave the recipe at the end in case you want to set up a pastry shop at home).

Ingredients

For 20 pastries:

Cream

• 500 ml of milk
• 500 ml of syrup
• 80 grams of egg yolk
• 1 whole egg
• 50 grams of flour
• 25 grams of cornstarch (Maizena)
• 1 sheet of packaged or homemade puff pastry (see recipe below)

Syrup

• 250 ml of water
• 400 grams of sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 small stick of cinnamon

Instructions

1. For the syrup, boil the water with the lemon zest and the cinnamon stick. Add the sugar, cook until the sugar dissolves, and let it cool.
2. Cut (or stretch a little with a rolling pin if store-bought and it doesn’t reach this size) the puff pastry into four rectangles of 40×25 centimeters, and roll each one to obtain four logs of 40 centimeters. Keep in the refrigerator for a minimum of four hours.
3. Take the dough out of the fridge and cut 25 pieces from each roll, each about 18/20 grams. You’ll get 25 pastries from each roll.
4. Place the pieces of dough into the molds, and with wet fingers, spread the dough inside the mold (see video). Repeat this process with all the pastries.
5. Let the dough rest inside the molds for at least one hour.
6. For the cream, bring 375 ml of milk to a boil.
7. Mix the remaining 125 ml with the flour and cornstarch.
8. Add the boiling milk to the previous mixture.
9. Add 500 ml of syrup in three parts, mixing well between each addition.
10. Add the yolks and whole egg, mixing well.
11. Pour the cream into the molds and bake at the maximum temperature of your home oven (around 250ºC) for about five minutes in the middle of the oven to cook the puff pastry well. Halfway through, turn the tray and raise it closer to the grill to brown the tops of the pastries for about five more minutes.

Puff Pastry

Ingredients
For 100 pastries:

• 1 kg of flour
• 480 grams of strong flour
• 19 grams of salt
• 700 grams of good margarine or puff pastry butter

Instructions

1. If preparing the puff pastry at home, mix the flour, water, and salt until forming a smooth dough that doesn’t stick to your fingers. Cover it with a damp cloth and let it rest.
2. Roll the butter between two sheets of parchment paper into a rectangle of 14×20 centimeters.
3. Dust the countertop with some flour and roll out the dough into a rectangle (30×50 centimeters). Place the block of butter right in the center of the dough and wrap the dough around the butter, so it is completely covered, as if it were a package (see video). Seal the edges and center very well.
4. Give the dough a quarter turn and roll it out into a rectangle of 30×100 centimeters. Then fold the right third towards the center (see video). Next, fold the left third over the right fold, ensuring the corners are straight. This is our first fold. Let the dough rest in the fridge, covered with a damp cloth for about 20 minutes.
5. Roll the dough out the same way and in the same position—longitudinally—until obtaining a rectangle of the same size as before (30×100 centimeters). Give the dough a quarter turn and fold again into thirds, first folding the right third to the center, and then the left, placing it on top of the right. This is our second fold. Let the dough rest in the fridge, covered with a damp cloth for about 20 minutes.
6. Roll out the dough in the same position—longitudinally—until you have a rectangle of 40×100 centimeters.