PASTRY:
2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 + 1/4 cups of water
1/4 tsp salt
240g unsalted butter (softened)
FILLING:
6 egg yolks (room temp.)
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
8g vanilla extract
2/3 cup sugar (caster)
1 cinnamon stick (large)
2 1/2 tbsp corn flour/starch
PASTRY:
Into a bowl take your flour, salt and sugar. Mix them together using a whisk. Then add the water gradually a little by little and start kneading with your hand. Keep kneading till you get a clean dough. Now on a large surface dust some flour and roll your dough into a flat long rectangle. Now take spatula/spoon/brush and scoop some of the soft butter and evenly spread it out all over the thin dough (cover every bit). Then fold your large sheet of dough into a square ( First take the bottom half to the middle then the top half to meet the first fold, then fold from both sides). Wrap this square dough and keep it in the fridge for an hour. Repeat this process two more times. On the third time, after your done spreading the butter, don't fold the dough, this time roll the dough gently from the bottom. Keep rolling till the top so that you end up with a long cylinder. Now wrap this cylinder up and pop it in the fridge for another hour before using it.
CUSTARD FILLING:
In a saucepan add your milk, heavy cream, sugar and cinnamon stick. Turn the heat to medium-low and start whisking gently. Bring this mixture to a slight boil and take it off the heat. In a large bowl take 6 egg yolks (room temp.), corn starch/flour and the vanilla essence/bean. Whisk this mixture together very well. Now comes the tricky part. Take your saucepan with the hot milk mixture and your whisk on the bowl with the egg mixture. Pour the hot milk onto the bowl slowly with one hand while thoroughly whisking the egg mixture at the same time on the other hand. It's very important to keep whisking while pouring the hot liquid, we do not want the egg to clamp together and become poached because of the heat. After mixing everything together you should end up with a light yellow runny liquid (it will not be thick).
TART:
Now finally take a cupcake tray and brush it with some unsalted butter. Take out your cylinder shaped dough from the fridge and cut them into 3cm pieces. Place each piece onto the cups of your tray (the circular part facing upwards). Now use your fingers to press the dough down and spread it out evenly on the cup (cover the cup completely). Now take your custard filling and pour onto all the cups (fill up the cup all the way) and just pop this tray into the oven and bake it for 30 minutes at 180 degree celcius (make sure your oven is preheated). And there you go! Pastel de nata right in your kitchen!
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