Speedy Portuguese tarts and perfection

I love a good Portuguese tart, but I can never recreate them authentically in the kitchen. I feel that the Portuguese do a much better job of them than I do, why challenge perfection?

I went to a Portuguese festival earlier on in the year and I fell even deeper in love with the little pastry treats. I instagrammed them too, look!  Instead of trying to recreate them in all their custardy glory, I make a quick version to tide me over until my next trip to a Portuguese bakery.

You can make them in half an hour, so they’re good for when guests unexpectedly come over.

• 2 sheets ready-made puff pastry
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 250g sour cream
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsb orange rind
• 2 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 200°C and grease 12 capacity muffin tin.

When your puff pastry is sufficiently thawed, cut out 12  circles about the same circumference as the top of the muffin tin. Ensure that when you put the rounds into the tin they make a cup shape to hold the custard mixture.

Sprinkle your pastry circles with the ground cinnamon and pop them in the oven for 10 minutes, until they start to turn golden.

While the pastry cooks, whip together your sour cream, vanilla, eggs, orange rind and sugar.

When you take the pastry rounds out of the oven they’ll have puffed up quite comically. Use a tablespoon to press the air out of them and allow them to cool for about five minutes. When they’ve cooled slightly, spoon the custard mixture evenly into your puff pastry and pop them back into the oven for 12-15 minutes.

Serve them with a sprinkling of icing sugar, or top with some fresh fruit.

Makes 12 tarts

I wrote this recipe for the Geelong Blabbertiser, and it’s also posted here.