Pastéis De Nata - Portuguese Egg Tarts

I decided that since this is not a recipe that I came up with or one from my family, that I would post where I got this one from and then give some information on this very famous tart. If you are here just for the recipe I got it from Rasa Malaysia from her Portuguese Egg Tart recipe.
The only different thing I did was instead of using her crust I used a puff pastry that I rolled out fairly thinly (as my hubby told me the last time I made these using a different recipe that the crust should be more flaky and puffy than regular pie crust). They were great! The hubby loved them, though they aren't exactly how he remembers them and even the little one enjoyed them.


If you are here to get a little history lesson with your food then please feel free to continue.

Pasteis De Nata are quite well known. You can type it in in Google and come up with about 342,000 results for it. You can find all kinds of recipes and I don't think two of the ones I've seen have been exactly the same, thanks to the fact that the Portuguese were explorers and tended to take their food knowledge all over the world as well as bringing much of it back to their country, these little tarts are famous the world round.


As to where these tarts originate, they were created in a Catholic Monastery called Jerónimos Monastery of Belém which is in Lisbon (the capitol and largest city in Portugal, also where my hubby is originally from :) ) in the early 1800's. All sources I've found speak of the one and only Casa Pastéis de Belém which is the first place the Pasteis De Nata or Pasteis De Belem were sold outside the convent, and was opened in 1837.

Some sources say that the Monastery closed in the 1820's and the recipe was sold to a confectioner and others say that the Casa Pastéis de Belém was opened in order to raise money for the monastery, that eventually became a UNESCO heritage site (I did ask the husband if this was true, to which he replied he didn't know. I then took a look at the site and their list. Because I didn't see Jeronimos Monastery in the list, the only one that looked like it could be it was Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of Belém in Lisbon. If I am wrong please let me know as I cannot go to Lisbon at the moment and check all my facts).
Casa Pastéis de Belém in any case is the only place to get the original version of the tarts which are called Pasteis De Belem, and NOT Pasteis De Nata which is the version that is more widely known. It's said that the original recipe made at Casa Pastéis de Belém is:

"Perhaps the most closely guarded secret in Portuguese cuisine, allegedly known to only a precious few at the Pasteis de Belem."

The delicious egg tarts were also chosen to represent Portugal in the "Café Europe initiative Austrian presidency of the European Union, on Europe Day 2006." As you can tell this pastry is not only famous in Portugal and with the Portuguese in general but it's made it's way to many places and is especially popular in Asian locations and communities such as Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. They even have them in Kentucky Fried Chicken branches in Hong Kong.
As for me, I will be definitely going to Casa Pasteis De Belem when I get the chance to go to Portugal to meet my family over there. The hubby has promised me (he actually just said "Yeah I'm sure we will." but to me this means "Yes, honey we will definitely be going." :D).
If you would like more information on Pasteis De Nata or would like to know where I found my information here are the links:

There's history - and a secret - in every bite - By Dominick Merle
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0811/p11s01-trgn.html

Pasteis De Nata - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastel_de_nata

Pasteis De Nata - Portuguese Custards - Algarve Buzz
http://www.algarvebuzz.com/pasties-de-nata-portuguese-custard-tarts/

My Hubby who is originally from Lisbon, Portugal... though you'll just have to trust me on this one ;)

Edit:
I've just been informed by Basic Basil, that Casa Pastéis de Belém has their own website over at http://www.pasteisdebelem.pt it is however in Portuguese at first but scroll down to find it is also in English.

Click on "2. Historial" for a bit of history,"3. Tour" will lead you to a page where on the bottom right hand corner is a arrow key pad (looks like the one on your keyboard) that will actually take you through the shop as you click. The "4. Horario" link will give you a list of opening hours in both Portuguese and English.