Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Pastéis de Nata
Blistered puff-pastry cups filled with silky cinnamon-scented custard, Lisbon’s daily miracle, best warm.
Portuguese · medium · serves 6
prep 25 min · cook 20 min
~208 cal · 7g protein · 33g carbs · 5g fat · 0g fiber · 28g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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The pastel de nata, Portugal's famous custard tart, was born in a monastery. Before the religious orders were dissolved in 1834, the monks of the Jeronimos Monastery in Belem, on the western edge of Lisbon, baked them to use up the surfeit of egg yolks left over from convent life, where egg whites were used in quantity to starch habits and clarify wine.
When the monastery closed, the recipe passed to a nearby sugar refinery, and the shop that became Pasteis de Belem has guarded the original formula ever since; only a handful of people are said to know it, and their tarts carry the protected name pasteis de Belem rather than the generic pastel de nata. Every other pastelaria in the country chases that ideal.
The perfect one has a shatteringly crisp, blistered laminated shell and a rich, just-set custard scorched dark in spots on top. It is eaten warm, still faintly wobbling, dusted at the table with cinnamon and sometimes powdered sugar, ideally with a strong bica coffee alongside.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
1 (14 oz) puff pastry sheet
1 cup whole milk
5 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp plain flour
1 cinnamon stick
1 strip lemon peel
1 tsp vanilla, to finish
to dust ground cinnamon, to finish
Instructions
1
Make a sugar syrup: boil the sugar with 1/3 cup water, the cinnamon stick, and lemon peel to a light syrup, then cool slightly.
2
Whisk the cornstarch and flour into the cold milk and heat, stirring, until it thickens.
3
Temper in the yolks (or vegan base) and the strained syrup, then add the vanilla, to finish the custard.
4
Roll the puff pastry into a tight log, slice into rounds, and press each into a muffin tin, thumbing the sides up thin.
✎ Chef’s note
Rolling the pastry into a spiral log gives those signature flaky layers that stand up around the custard. Press the sides thin so they crisp.
5
Fill each pastry case three-quarters full with custard.
6
Bake on the highest shelf at the oven’s hottest setting (500F/260C or more, top element on) for 12 to 15 minutes, until the tops blister to black-brown scorch marks.
✎ Chef’s note
Those dark scorch spots are the mark of a proper pastel de nata, not a mistake. Put the tray as close to the top element as it will go: the custard surface has to caramelise before the inside overcooks, and the margin between perfect and burnt is seconds.
7
Cool briefly, dust with cinnamon, and eat warm.
Lisbon pastelaria tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Lisbon. Lisbon queues daily for pasteis de nata, custard tarts blistered dark in fierce ovens. The wider city kitchen runs on salt cod cooked a hundred ways, grilled sardines in summer, olive oil, coriander, and slow-cooked pork and clam dishes.
🗺️
Portugal. Portugal is a seafaring nation that seasoned half the world, and its cooking reflects those voyages, salt cod (bacalhau) in a hundred forms, piri-piri heat from Africa, and custard tarts perfumed with cinnamon. Hearty, rustic, and coastal, it leans on pork, seafood, and bread.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Portugal
Caldo VerdePortugal’s signature green soup: silky potato broth with ribbons of collard greens and smoky sausage.
Bacalhau à BrásShredded salt cod tangled with straw-thin fried potatoes and softly scrambled egg, dotted with olives.
Torrada com GalãoThick toasted bread drenched in butter, served with a tall glass of milky galão coffee.
Browse all Portugal recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Mould or tin, Whisk.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Portugal meal
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Frequently asked questions
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?
This Pastéis de Nata recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Pastéis de Nata safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Pastéis de Nata take to make?
About 45 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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