The Great 'BIG H' Bake Off: Pastry Week

If you'd have asked me a year ago whether I watched The Great British Bake Off I would have laughed in your face.  But after giving its new series a go I have to admit: there is something oddly satisfying about watching people bake- or sometimes failing miserably to.

Ever since rediscovering food in a totally different light and enjoying its textures, flavours and colours, I've loved baking and cooking for friends and family.  You name it, I've baked it.  From cookies, cakes and crumbles to hearty savoury vegetable casseroles, pies and quiches.

Last week was pastry week in the Bake Off tent and the bakers proved that perfecting it was not a piece of cake... Literally.

The technical task of the week was Paul Hollywood's own recipe for the infamous Pastéis de Natas- or posh Portuguese custard tarts to you and me.  This literally translates as "cream pastries" and challenged the bakers to demonstrate their basic puff pastry layering skills and getting the correct colour and consistency of their custard.  The crisp brown custard topping and the inclusion of cinnamon to the mixture characterise these classic European tarts- with the light, flaky pastry making the treat more of a light bite or a perfect hors d'oeuvre appetiser.  

You can't go wrong with desserts like these, it defines what baking means to me and it's just the sort of thing you'd expect to smell baking in your local patisserie.  Pastéis de Natas are perfect as part of a big breakfast buffet, a light dessert to compliment your evening meal or simply as an indulgence.  Need there be an excuse? Although I've never been a big pastry lover sweet or savoury I wanted to replicate that cosy, wintery straight-from-the-bakery feeling.  

These were a huge hit and were perfect for feeding my friends and family on a visit home from uni!  The best thing about them is that they require minimal effort, minimal ingredients and contain minimal calories!  Obviously these tarts are treats, but I've always been conscious of calorie, fat and sugar content, especially when baking as it can be hard to keep track.  Now, I use My Net Diary to create my own recipes which logs the overall nutritional information (which I recommend for anyone who's bad with maths like me!)  

Nutritional Information

I haven't completely replicated Paul's recipe but you can follow his more closely by rolling the pastry into a log shape after layering it, slicing it then flattening it into a circular shape for your base.  This creates the iconic swirl on the bottom of the tart.  Paul also uses cinnamon sticks instead of ground or powdered cinnamon, this ensures the custard stays yellow. 

You can find his full recipe here: https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/pauls-pasteis-de-nata/

It's relatively easy to make and you won't have too much trouble getting the ingredients you need (in fact you've probably got most of them in your cupboard right now).  My recipe will give you 10-12 individual tarts weighing roughly around 50 grams.

Ingredients

For the pastry:

Plain Flour (130g)

Salt (pinch of)

70% less fat Margarine (20g)
Water (90ml)

For the custard:

Medium Free Range Egg Yolks (4 of)
Skimmed Milk (240ml)
Caster Sugar (75g)
Cornflour (45g)
Ground Cinnamon (3/4tsp)
Vanilla Extract (1/2tsp)

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/356°F.  I lined my baking tray with foil to ensure the cases wouldn't stick when I removed them from the oven. 

I made my own pastry by rubbing margarine into flour with a pinch of salt until you get a bitty breadcrumb texture.  Add roughly 6 tbsps of water until you form a thick dough mixture.  

Roll it out into a rectangular shape, using more flour to toughen it and more water if needed to make the dough more malleable.  

Place small knobs of margarine over two thirds of your dough.  Then, fold the top and bottom layers over into the middle.  Using a rolling pin, roll into a rectangle again and rotate the dough so it's horizontal and repeat the previous layering process again.  (You can use a lower calorie alternative by substituting butter or margarine for miso paste and cocoa butter).  I normally do avoid using butter at all but with this I find you don't get the flaky texture of the "rough puff" if you use an alternative.

I used the rim of a glass to create circles for my pastry cases to line the baking tray with, then left them to refrigerate so that they stayed firm and thick.

Separate the yolks from the egg whites and whisk them in a mixing bowl until the consistency is smooth.  Leave this to stand whilst combining the milk, cornflour, vanilla extract, caster sugar and cinnamon in a saucepan over heat. (I used ground cinnamon and in hindsight would use cinnamon sticks to prevent the custard from turning out as dark in colour)   Stir continuously until the mixture becomes begins to thicken.  

The next bit can be a little fiddly- remove the saucepan from heat and slowly add no more than half of the mixture to the egg yolks in the mixing bowl, whisking the whole time.  It's so hard to bake with eggs as their consistency can be altered SO easily! If you add it all at once it's likely your mixture will turn out lumpy with a scrambled egg look to it!  

You'll know when to stop whisking as the texture should stay the same, in this case the only change is the colour because I used powdered cinnamon.

Return the saucepan to heat.  Here it gets fiddly again: continuously stir whilst slowly adding the egg yolk and half of the custard mixture.  The egg yolks should quickly thicken the sauce so it becomes more like custard as we know it.

After I'd been stirring for a while I used the hand whisk to get rid of any extra lumps.  Some of the mixture should cling to the whisk (as shown below).  This is how you know you've achieved the right consistency.

Now you can finally remove your pastry from the fridge!  Remove the saucepan from heat and spoon the mixture into your pastry cases.  

You don't need a lot of custard per pastry as it will really start to puff up in the oven.  Although you want the tops to have a crisp feel to them to contrast with smooth custard filling inside you don't want the tops to blacken or burn.

Bake in the oven at 180°C/356°F for 20 minutes.  They may need a little longer depending on the size and depth of your pastries.

You'll see the pastries beginning to thicken and the custard will rise and brown, make sure they don't burn or that the tarts collapse in on themselves in the heat.

When they're ready to come out, carefully remove them from the baking tray cases.  I used a knife to help wedge them out without damaging their structure.  They still came out pretty easily because of the grease-proof foil I lined the tray with.  Place them on a cooling rack for ten minutes. 

I didn't add anything extra as a garnish but you could top your tarts with a sprinkle of powdered sugar, cocoa or cinnamon.  

Perfectly served with cream and fresh fruit, it's time to sit back and enjoy!

Making this again I would use even less sugar as it just didn't need it with the flavours from the cinnamon and the fluffy, buttery pastry.  Although my friends and family thought they looked great as they were, I'd use cinnamon sticks next time to keep the iconic bright yellow custard colour.

I'll definitely work with pastry more often now- and with Christmas only a couple of months round the corner these bite-sized appetisers are great for festive holiday get-togethers.  Next time I'll try a savoury spicy vegetable or caramelised onion and cheddar filling- perfect to fill a buffet and keep it interesting! 

After all these treats, it's time to hit the gym!  Shortly, I'll be posting my gym routine and daily exercises I start the day with home or away that easily fit into my busy lifestyle wherever I am!