Custard Recipes
Old-fashioned custard, start to finish — Pasteis de Nata, Amish Baked Custard, Banana Custard Bake, coconut custard pie — for cooks who like simple sweets.
★ dessert
dessertPasteis de Nata (Portuguese Custard Tart)
Puff pastry and a creamy custard come together in this classic Portuguese tart.
Ingredients
- 2 sheets (about 17 ounces total) frozen puff pastry sheets
- 1 3/4 cups whole milk
- 2 tablespoons, plus more for greasing unsalted butter
- 1 cinnamon stick
- a 3-inch strip lemon peel
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 large egg yolks
Instructions
- 1Preheat oven to 500'F. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin pan (or 12 individual muffin tins, if you have them) with butter. Stack both sheets of pastry on top of each other, then roll into a tight log from one end. Cut the log into 12 (about 1/2-inch-thick) slices. Dip fingertips in water; press the center of each slice down with your fingertips to flatten it. Dip thumbs in water, and gently stretch and pull pastry to form a 3-inch wide shallow bowl. Press each pastry bowl into the bottom and up the sides of each muffin cup extending the edges about 1/4-inch above the top of pan. Leave at room temperature until ready to bake.
- 2In a medium saucepan, combine milk, butter, cinnamon stick, and lemon peel. Heat over medium until just beginning to boil.
- 3In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, and flour. In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks until smooth.
- 4When just beginning to boil, remove cinnamon and lemon peel from the milk mixture. Whisk in the flour mixture until thickened but not boiling (about 1 minute), then remove from heat. Gradually whisk the hot mixture into the egg yolks. Strain into a heatproof measuring cup with a spout.
- 5Divide the custard evenly among the pastry-lined muffin cups, about 3 tablespoons each.
- 6Bake until the pastry is golden and the custard is puffed, about 12 minutes. Broil until browned in spots, 2-3 minutes. Cool slightly (about 5 minutes), then remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
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Open in Pepper →Eggs, Milk, Sugar And A Little Patience
Custard is about the cheapest dessert there is, and one of the best. Eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla turn into something silky if you keep the heat low and pay attention for a few minutes.
Cooks on Pepper reach for these when company's coming and the pantry is thin, or when there's a pie shell in the freezer and a dozen eggs in the door.
Every recipe here is custard in one form or another: Pasteis de Nata with their blistered tops, Vanilla Custard Puff Pastry Squares, Amish Baked Custard, Banana Custard Bake with cinnamon, coconut custard pie and a plain Egg Custard Pie.
Quick Tips
- 1
Temper the eggs slowly
Whisk about a cup of hot milk into the beaten eggs a little at a time before adding it all back to the pan. Dump it in fast and you get scrambled eggs.
- 2
Bake in a water bath
Set custard cups in a pan and pour in hot water halfway up the sides. It keeps the edges from setting hard before the center is done.
- 3
Pull it slightly jiggly
Take baked custard out when the center still wobbles about the size of a quarter. It firms up as it cools.
- 4
Chill at least 3 hours
Custard needs a few hours in the fridge to set and slice clean. Overnight is better for pies.
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