Portuguese tarts:

If you think Portugese tarts are simple custard tarts your wrong! Its a balance of super sweet filling, buttery puff pastry and burnt sugar. I recommend you buy a high quality puff pastry for these tarts as it makes all the difference.

10 egg yolks

300g white sugar

150ml double cream
2 tablespoon corn flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
150ml water
425g Puff pastry
Flour to roll pastry
Extra sugar for brûlée

Method:

Place sugar and water in a small pot and place on a high heat element and let it come to a simmer, stir once and a while so the sugar dissolves, once the water and sugar have turned into a syrup place aside to cool slightly.
In a large mixing bowl place the yolks, cream and vanilla, then dissolve the corn flour in 3 tablespoons of water and add to yolks, beat with a whisk till evenly combined then while beating the yolks slowly pour the suger syrup in a steady stream till combined.
Lightly roll out the puff pastry on a floured surface, the pastry should be around 3mm thick, then using a round cutter (3½ inches in diameter) cut out 12 rounds.
Lightly grease a 12 hold muffin pan and line the molds with the pastry make sure you press down the sides of the pastry so it sticks. Evenly pour in the egg mixture into each pastry case and place in oven on top shelf at 200oC for 10 minutes, after ten minutes move to the bottom shelf and cook for a further 5minutes or till the egg mixture stops wobbling. Leave to cool completely before removing from the pan.
Once the tarts have been taken out of the pan spread the tops with sugar and using a kitchen flame torch lightly melt and burn the sugar so it caramelizes, if you don’t have a blow torch you can place the tarts under the grill for a few minutes to caramelize the sugar.