What is Pastéis de Nata?

Blistered puff-pastry cups filled with silky cinnamon-scented custard — Lisbon’s daily miracle, best warm.

Where does Pastéis de Nata come from?

Pastéis de Nata is a Portuguese dish from Lisbon, Portugal.

Can Pastéis de Nata be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?

Yes. This Pastéis de Nata recipe includes ingredient substitutions to make it vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, or egg-free — including several of those at once, such as gluten-free and dairy-free together.

How long does Pastéis de Nata take to make?

About 45 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 6.

Recipe

Name: Pastéis de Nata
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Portuguese
Ingredients: 1 (14 oz) puff pastry sheet; 1 cup whole milk; 5 egg yolks; 3/4 cup sugar; 3 tbsp cornstarch; 1 cinnamon stick; 1 strip lemon peel; 1 tsp + to dust vanilla + ground cinnamon, to finish

Europe → 🇵🇹 Portugal → Lisbon

Pastéis de Nata

Portuguese · medium · serves 6

prep 25 min · cook 20 min

~198 cal · 7g protein · 31g carbs · 5g fat (estimated, per serving)

🍽️

Custard tarts with blistered caramelized tops

🇵🇹 Lisbon

Monks at Lisbon’s Jerónimos Monastery baked these before 1834, using leftover egg yolks (the whites starched their habits). The recipe from Belém is a guarded secret; every other pastelaria in Portugal chases it, warm from the oven, dusted with cinnamon.

Make it yours

Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.

🥕 Vegetarian

🌱 Vegan

🌾 Gluten-Free

🥛 Dairy-Free

🥜 Nut-Free

🥚 Egg-Free

Ingredients

Serves 6 —

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1 (14 oz) puff pastry sheet

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1 cup whole milk

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5 egg yolks

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3/4 cup sugar

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3 tbsp cornstarch

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1 cinnamon stick

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1 strip lemon peel

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1 tsp + to dust vanilla + ground cinnamon, to finish

Instructions

Make a sugar syrup: boil the sugar with 1/3 cup water, cinnamon stick, and lemon peel to a light syrup; cool slightly.

Whisk the cornstarch into cold milk, heat to thicken, then temper in the yolks (or vegan base) and the syrup (strained). Add vanilla. This is the custard.

Roll the puff pastry into a tight log, slice into rounds, and press each into a muffin tin, thumbing up the sides thin.

Fill each three-quarters with custard.

Bake at the oven’s max (500°F) 12–15 minutes until the tops blister black-brown — that scorch is the whole point. Cool briefly, dust with cinnamon, eat warm.

Lisbon pastelaria tradition.

Ratings & reviews

No reviews yet — be the first to cook it.

🌏 While it simmers — know your destination

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Lisbon. The city that queues daily for warm custard tarts.

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Portugal. A seafaring nation that seasoned half the world.

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Europe. Village recipes guarded for generations.

The story behind this dish is up top — worth a read while the pot works.

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Richard Moore & Kelsey Tucker

Recipes cooked, tested, and researched by the creators of Spin the Globe. How we build our recipes →