Portuguese Custard Tarts

Preparation time:
Cooking time: 20 mins

Difficulty:
Serves:

Dietary guidance: v 

Tags: dessert · custard · cakes · tarts ·

Ingredients

Makes approx 24 small tarts

3 egg yolks
2 tbsp cornflour
half a cup of sugar
cup of single cream
half a cup of milk
2 tbsp vanilla paste (I used essence)
lemon rind
puff pastry (I used the ready-to-roll stuff)
You'll need a fairy cake tin, or similar
And icing sugar for dusting if you wish

Method

Roll pastry to approx an eighth of an inch (2-3mm) and cup out circles big enough to line the cake tins (I'll take a pic next time I do this - it'll make more sense!).
Preheat oven to 200C.
In a saucepan whisk together the egg yolks and cornflour until smooth.
Add the sugar and whisk again.
Add the cream and milk - keep whisking!
Then add the vanilla paste and lemon rind (can be big chunks or lemon rind, you fish them out later, or you can use zest, but you need quite a bit and that takes longer - depends how lazy you are!)
Warm the mixture, gently whisking all the time, over a gentle heat until thick - this takes about 5 minutes.
Once thickened take the mixture off the heat and spoon some into each pastry case.
Bake for approx 15-20 minutes - they will rise, but don't worry, they sink again as they start to cool.
To serve dust with icing sugar.

Lovely :-)

Great with fresh strawberries or raspberries.
You can make larger ones too, you may just need to increase the cooking time slightly.