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Portuguese Custard Tarts

Posted on Posted in Portugal, Tarts .

Portuguese Custard Tarts

Portuguese Custard Tarts recipe

Portuguese Custard Tarts (aka Pastéis De Nata) are not only Portuguese traditional delicious sweet treats they are super easy to make!

The background of these lovely treats is quite interesting. They were created back in the 1800’s when egg-whites were used for starching of clothes, therefore egg yolks were in the abundance. Due to this the leftover egg yolks were used to make cakes and pastries – where Portuguese Custard Tarts was one of these treats.

There have been many alterations to the recipe over the years (etc speckled with Cinnamon) however I believe the original flavor mix is the best!

 

Ingredients:

  • 165g sugar
  • 185g water
  • 2 lemon peels
  • 1 tsn vanilla essence
  • 35g corn flour
  • 375g milk
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1 sheet of puffy pastry

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 200c degrees and spray a 12 capacity muffin tin with oil spray.
  2. Place the sugar, water, lemon peel and essence in a pan on a high heat on the stove, stir constantly until boiling.
  3. Conclude the stirring and let the syrup thicken up for a few minutes.
  4. Take off the heat to cool slightly.
  5. Place the corn flour, milk and egg yolks in a bowl and whisk with a hand whisk until well combine.
  6. Pour the milk mix into the saucepan with the sugar syrup and whisk with the hand whisk until the sugar syrup has dissolved into the milk mix.
  7. Place the saucepan on the heat and on high stir continuously until the mix thickens and boils (about 5 mins), set aside to cool.
  8. Fold the pastry sheet in half and roll up at the short end tightly into a log shape.
  9. Trim the edges of the log and cut circles 1cm thick. You will have 12 rounds.
  10. Lay the pastry flat on the bench and using a rolling pin roll out to 10x10cm circles.
  11. Press the pastry into the muffin tin holes and lightly press in place.
  12. Spoon the custard mix into the pastry cups.
  13. Place the tin in the oven for 25 minutes or until the tops of the custard gets dark golden.
  14. Allow to cool and enjoy!

Portuguese Custard Tarts

Step 5

Custard Tarts recipe.

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Portuguese Custard Tarts recipe

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Portuguese Custard Tarts recipe

Step 8

Portuguese Custard Tarts recipe

Step 9

Portuguese Custard Tarts recipe

Step 9

Portuguese Custard Tarts recipe

Step 9

Portuguese Custard Tarts recipe.

Step 10

Portuguese Custard Tarts recipe

Step 11

Portuguese Custard Tarts recipe

Step 12

 

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German Spice Biscuits

Posted on Posted in Biscuits, German, Traditional .

German Spice Biscuit recipeGerman Spice Biscuits

I am a big fan of spices and saw a recipe for Chai biscuits that sparked my interest. Following, a traditional German Spice biscuit recipe caught my eye and I noticed the ingredients were pretty much the same. The only difference was the German biscuits used eggs instead of butter and they had 1/2 tsn pepper and nutmeg which the chai biscuits didn’t have. Looking at these 2 recipes I was more drawn to the traditional and more spiced flavoured biscuit.

These biscuits are very very similar in flavour to gingerbread men, they even have the same icing but are easier to make and take much less time.

 

Ingredients:

  • 2 + ¼ cups plain flour
  • ¼ tsn baking powder
  • 1 tsn ground ginger
  • ½ tsn nutmeg
  • 1 tsn ground cardamom
  • 1 tsn cinnamon
  • ¼ tsn finely ground black pepper
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 1 + ¼ cups icing sugar

 

Method:

  1. Preheat an oven to 180c and line a baking tray with baking paper.
  2. Sift flour, baking powder, spices and pepper in a bowl.
  3. Place the eggs (less 1 egg white) and sugar in a bowl and beat until thick and creamy.
  4. Stir in the flour mix until a dough is formed.
  5. Shape the dough into 1 tbsn sized balls (20g) and place on the baking tray. Flatten the top slightly with fingers.
  6. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes of until just firm.
  7. Transfer onto a cooling rack.
  8. Lightly beat the egg white and add in enough of the icing sugar to form a smooth icing.
  9. Using a pastry-brush brush the icing over the top and sides of the biscuit until they are thickly coated. Leave them to set.

 

Notes:

  • The traditional way of icing these biscuits is pouring the icing over them, however you will find this don’t work and you waste majority of the icing and only get some biscuits covered.
  • These biscuits are not very extremely sweet, but super tasty. They would not taste as good if they were a sweeter biscuit.

German Spice Biscuit recipe

German Spice Biscuits recipe

German Spice Biscuits recipe

German Spice Biscuits recipe

 

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Swedish Apple Cake

Posted on Posted in Cakes, Sweden, Traditional .


Swedish Apple Cake recipe

Swedish Apple Cake

So someone said to me the other day why don’t you bake an apple pie. My response was ‘to boring’ I like to try ‘out there’ unexpected flavours and then be surprised when the flavours are magic and I uncover a hidden gem recipe…However, I also love to ‘uncover’ traditional global dessert recipes – I think this is because some cultures have flavours I have never even heard of which peaks my ‘trial & testing’ obsession.

But, it did get me thinking, I do baking a lot with fruit and the recipes have in the most part been amazing and there are millions of different apple pie/tart/slice/cake/torts/jelly/trifle recipes.

So I decided that I would investiagte and find a killer recipe that ticks all the boxes..I am told this cake tastes exactly like Apple Pie but as a cake…

 

Ingredients:

  • 4 granny smith apples
  • 260g plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 150g white sugar
  • 150g butter
  • 4 eggs

Glaze:

  • 50g water
  • 50g white sugar
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon

 

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180c and line a 25cm cake tin with baking paper.
  2. Peel the apples. Dice 3 into 1cm cubes. For the 4th apple slice thinly into moon shapes to decorate the cake.
  3. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl.
  4. Add the diced apple to the bowl and mix with dry ingredients well.
  5. Add the softened butter and eggs until all ingredients are well combined.
  6. Pour into cake tin.
  7. Place the sliced apple in a fan shape on top of the batter.
  8. Bake for 60 minutes or until a skew inserted in the cake comes out clean.
  9. Cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer onto a cooling rack.
  10. Make the glaze by combining the ingredients together in a small pan on low and stir until the sugar dissolves. Turn up heat to medium until the glaze thickens to half the measure.
  11. Using a pastry-brush brush the apples on top of the cake with the glaze.

 

Notes:

  • The reason you need to make sure you mix the dry ingredients with the diced apple is because covering the apple in flour will ensure the apple does not sink to the bottom.
  • As the apple is diced so finely after cooking the pieces themselves break down, making the cake smooth in texture and apple intenseness in every bite. If you would like to actually have apple pieces in the cake you will need to dice into 2cm sizes.
  • 150g sugar may not seem like that much for a full cake, however as apple has natural sugar they bring this into the cake (that is if you have nice tasty apples and not apple on the sour ‘to ripe’ side).
  • Don’t try to make the glaze in the microwave. I am all for time saving and making things easier but this will only make a water like glaze texture not a syrupy one.
  • This cake does not need icing (that would not work at all), if you want something to eat this with ice-cream or a dollop of cream would go down a treat. This would also be perfect for people that don’t have as much as a sweet tooth as it will dull down the sweetness.

 

Swedish Apple Cake recipe

The ingredients

Swedish Apple Cake recipe

Step 2. Dies apple

Swedish Apple Cake recipe

Step 7.

Swedish Apple Cake recipe

Step 9.

 

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