Pastel de nata

I’ve been wanting to share this one for quite some time now because let’s face, you will be able to show off with it. Homemade vegan pastel de nata, that’s like making your own haute couture dress right?

If you want to cheat a little bit, don’t hesitate to buy puff pastry in the store. The ones from LI

INGREDIENTS

For the puff pastry

250 grams of flour

140 ml of water

5 grams of salt

50 grams of vegan butter – it's important to use butter, not margarine. We're going all in here

200 grams of butter for layering

For the cream

500 ml of fat milk like soy or almond

25 g of maizena

25 g of corn flour

100 g sugar

1 cinnamon stick

One zested orange

One zested lemon

PREPARATION

The puff pastry

Step 1. Assemble the dough

Combine flour, water, salt and 50 grams of butter and briefly knead into a dough. Once it's nice and smooth, shape it into a ball and wrap it in a plastic wrap.

Just like you, the dough is tired and needs a little rest. Put it in the fridge and let it sit for at least 30 minutes.

At this point, the dough may and should feel kind of moist. 

Step 2. Slice up the butter

Cut the 200 grams of butter into 8 thin strips. If you're more of a baker than a mathematician, each strip should weigh about 25 grams.

Once cut, put the butter in the fridge while you continue working your way through this recipe. 

Step 3. The good old roll and fold 

Lightly flour your work surface and flatten the dough ball using a rolling pin.

Roll the dough out into a long single-bed-like shape. You should end up with a piece of dough that is about three times longer than it is wide. 

It gets a bit tricky here. Stay with us.

Take a few deep breaths.

Now take the butter out of the fridge.

Use your imagination to divide the dough into three equal sections.

Place two of the 25-gram butter slices in the (imaginary) middle section. Fold the bottom section over the buttery middle section. Then take the top section and fold it down. 

It should look like a burrito or a wrap. But then with butter. 

Step 4. Chill, fold, repeat 

Press the sides of your butterito (we went there) together and then wrap it up in a plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. 

We told you this recipe was for the crafty ones. Hang in there. We are reaching the end. 

After half an hour, take the dough and roll it out into a long single-bed-like shape again. Just like in step 3, the dough should be 3 times longer than it is wide. 

Now it's time to do the butter dance again. Place two 25-gram butter slices in the (imaginary) middle section. Fold the bottom section over the buttery middle section. Then take the top section and fold it down. Once again, press the sides firmly, wrap it up…And refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. 

Repeat this two more times while you chant “roll it fold it chill it why on earth am I doing this”. 

Step 5. The final fold

This is it. You've used all the butter, so you know the end is near. 

Grab your dough, roll it out until it is three times as long as it is wide, and go through the same folding motion as before…But then without the butter. 

Press the sides one last time, wrap it up, and refrigerate for another 30 minutes. 

Step 6. It's been 84 years…

But not really. The dough is now ready to be rolled out, used, or frozen for up to three months.

If you want to slice the dough into smaller portions to freeze, roll it out until it's about half a centimetre thick. Then roll it up again, cut into pieces, wrap in plastic, and…freeze! 

The cream

Let's make some vegan pastry cream!

First of all, set aside a couple of tablespoons of milk, which we mix with the maizena and corn starch.

Now, in a saucepan, heat the remaining milk with the orange and lemon west and the cinnamon stick. When the milk begins to boil, turn off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes.

After ten minutes, take out the cinnamon stick and mix in the maizena and corn starch mix and sugar. Start heating the mixture again.

Bring to boil and let boil for about two minutes, while feverishly continue to stir. Be careful not to burn the bottom of the pan.

Let cool down before you use it further. This can easily be overnight.

Making & baking the pasteles de nata

OK, so we’re ready for the final trick.

Preheat your oven to 240C conventional heat.

Roll out your puff pastry (if you made it yourself) until it’s a couple of mm thick. The easiest way to make the pasteles is in a silicon shape - i use one that is completely round but a cupcake one should do the trick too.

With a round cookie cutter, cut out circles of about 10 - 12 cm. Put each of them in the silicon shape (if you don’t use silicon shapes, don’t forget to butter or use baking paper!).

Make a mixture of a couple of tablespoons of milk with agave syrup. Brush every pastel de nata bottom.

Now fill the bottoms with the cream. Don’t put tooooooooo much (though we know you like it creamy), because it might overflow and you’ll end up with a soggy bottom. Once all filled, put in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes until golden brown.

Let cool down for 10 minutes before you take them out of the shapes. They’ll have the perfect eating temperature by now and you have less chance of ruining the pastry. You can also reheat them in the oven or microwave later that day or a day after.