In Portugal we have a traditional pastry called Pastel de Nata (literally 'cream tart') composed of a puff pastry cup containing a kind of custard with a very light touch of lemon, that's then browned on top and sprinkled with cinnamon (at the eater's discretion). I'm trying to recreate that flavor. The recipe is below, along with a recent attempt I made:
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Puff pastry
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Cream (2 dL)
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Milk (0.5 dL)
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Egg yolks (6)
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Cornstarch (1 teaspoon)
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Sugar (100g)
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Powdered cinnamon
The recipe itself is simple:
>Set the puff pastry on stove cup-shaped trays. add the cream, milk, yolks, sugar and cornstarch, stir and keep it on a light stove heat (while stirring) until it boils. Pour onto the pastry cups. Let it sit on the oven for 15 minutes at 250C. When serving, sprinkle cinnamon.
Of all my attempts, this one came closer:
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Cinnamon Danish (2%)
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Vanilla Custard v2 (1%)
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Bavarian Cream (4%)
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Graham Cracker (3%)
Closer to the taste, but not right. I added the vanilla and it improved the taste, but it didn't bring it closer. The cinnamon danish tastes too much like... a cinnamon danish and not enough as actual cinnamon. It tastes overall bland too.
I tried several other recipes, but they tasted bad (no steeping) and completely off-base so it's not worth mentioning.
> The cinnamon danish tastes too much like... a cinnamon danish and not enough as actual cinnamon. It tastes overall bland too.
Maybe try FLV Rich Cinnamon. It's a really nice smooth and realistic cinnamon and no bakery flavours. It's expensive but very potent, so a 5mL bottle will last you a long time.
Fa custard is a lemon type custard. Pretty authentic. Maybe try pairing that with Dulce De Leche.
While a lot of recipes add a strip of lemon peel to the batter, it's not noticeable - to give you an impression of how subtle of a flavor the lemon is, I had no idea it was included until I googled the recipe.
Meringue uses egg whites, while Pastel de Nata uses only yolks, so I'm ruling it out for now. I'm looking at the Flavor Art website and right now I'm trying to match each ingredient/group of ingredients with a flavor, I'm considering something along the lines of:
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Cinnamon Ceylon - for the cinnamon, obviously
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Milk Condensed (or Dulce de Leche from TPA) - for the milk and sweetening EDIT: probably going with Dulce de Leche
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Cream Fresh - for the cream
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Croissant - for the pastry, it's the closest pastry I've tasted to a Pastel de Nata's pastry
Basically if your that close its trial and error, asking questions like you have helps a ton. If you could describe what you think is missing to us. it may help out a lot.
I see your talking about the cinnamon. Any thing else?
Do you think it's a flavor/ingredient missing or out of wack. maybe texture or even a smell?
Honest thanks for the encouragement, but I don't feel like I'm close.
The taste of the actual tart is fairly complex. It doesn't have vanilla, but you can taste something similar. It's sweet, but overall eggy and milky, not candy-like sweet. The pastry is an important factor and honestly from memory, a simple croissant (no nuts) is the closest I can think of. It's a combination of that milk-egg custard, the puff pastry and the cinnamon on top, that I'm trying to recreate.
The juice I made is, basically, not complex. It's not really sweet, has custard notes, but you can really taste the Cinnamon Danish - the pastry should be a background taste, here it's too forward. It tastes pretty simple and a bit bland bland. I've been vaping it daily, I don't dislike it, but it's not what I'm looking for.
Edit: if you ever visit Portugal, this is something you have to try, by the way. Pastéis de Belém, in Lisboa, is one of the oldest and probably best manufacturers in the country.
FA milk condensed is garbage, at least IMO. Even at super low percentages, I'm talking 1 drop per 15 ml, it makes the mix into a chemically harsh mess. I'm thinking about trying a 10% dilution of it but haven't gotten around to it.
Came here to also suggest FA Custard over CAP VC for more lemony than egg, but you could balance both. FA Custard has a pretty light lemon flavour in it.
For the pastry check out INW Biscuit - have a look for botboys awesome apple pie, has some notes about getting a puff pastry type crust.
Hmmmm.. maybe a little FA Apple Pie might help here for its pastry qualities. IMO in low percentages I cannot taste much Apple and more Pie Crust. Might help put a little depth on the pastry flavor you're going for.
I seriously can't believe you've just posted this. It's totally freaky. I've literally just finished testing my latest and final batch of a recipe for a Portuguese custard tart and was planning on posting it on here tomorrow, naively thinking it would be a pretty original profile to release. Lol! How wrong was I!
Only issue is in the UK, the ones I eat aren't a puff pastry, they're sweet crust. There's also no discernible lemon and they are finished with Nutmeg rather than cinnamon.
Regardless, I think what I have come up with in terms of the main components will really help you out and then you can just switch out a couple of ingredients to make it your own, likely more authentic recipe.
When I'm on my PC tomorrow I'll post it on here and ATF and hopefully you will enjoy it and tweak it to your own needs
Thank you a million! And yes, it's a coincidence, especially since I've been doing this as a weekend project for a few months, but only now decided to post about it
Recipe posted in this months thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/5am6a3/november_2016_recipe_thread/
And on ATF here: https://alltheflavors.com/recipes/20044#basket_case_by_dookie52
I have seen the suggestion below of using eggnog, which occurred to me myself, but having just placed a massive order, I wasn't in the mood to order yet more flavours. I can see how it would work here though if mixed with other custards like in my recipe.
Might not be exactly what you are looking for, but is a good representation of a UK store bought tart and pretty close to what I was looking for. Good luck!
I love Portuguese tarts and I am fortunate enough to stay in a place where they sell an abundance of them. For me a good Portuguese tart needs to have that contrasting quality of smooth eggy inside with a flaky crust. The top is also slightly charred or caramelised. I would explore things like TFA Brown sugar (for the bakery taste), Capella vanilla custard/FA Custard for filling, Capella Sugar Cookie to add a bakery feel to it, INW biscuit with a combination of Graham cracker, or FW pie crust for the crust, and maybe even FA Joy or FA Catalan cream for that golden brown top.
Why did you remind me? I need to go back and stuff 10 of these in my mouth simultaneously.
I think INW Creme Brulee might help. Also maybe a pinch of CAP Sugar Cookie. Click the flavs for reviews, they both have overlapping profiles that you're looking for.
Also, time to bring out the big guns dude. Cap Vanilla Custard V1. Do it for science! And although Cinnamon is in the actual recipe for Pastel de Nata, I've never tasted cinnamon while eating them. So either consider cutting it down to 0.5% or something so low that it's only noticeable compared to a version without it at all.
You need to get more egg and butter into the profile somehow. I fucking love Portuguese Custard Tarts so I'm hoping you'll bless us with a perfect recipe once it's done.
Portuguese dude here :) I know that not long ago there was a guy selling a Pastel de Nata juice on some facebook groups, can't recall his name but you should try to find bom and ask him for some guidance. Anyway, if you ever need some tester, send me a PM, I think that a Portuguese guy would be the best to test the recipe. Cheers!
For the Custard part, I would go CAP Custard V1 topped with INW Creme Brulle, a bit of caramel and cinnamon (for the caramilised top). I would add a heavy light coloured cream (so whipped or sweet cream). I just have no clue how to create the puff pastry. It is puff pastry, not biscuit based crust.
idk how you're progressing on this but i was watching videos tonight and came across this. you might be able to use it as a jumping off point for making your own.
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