Easy custard tarts with cinnamon & orange recipe

I really wanted to see if I could make a super easy custard tart using Ultra Mel because pasteis de nata is right up there amongst my favourite bake treats. My hopes of visiting Portugal in the near future has been firmly put on ice with this global crisis but I can at least try and conjure up a piece of pastry heaven that reminds me of this dream. Clinging onto dreams is all we can do right now. My research led me to Jamie Oliver’s easy custard tarts with caramel topping, so I used that as my base. I did a few experiments and in the end, these easy custard tarts with orange and cinnamon and a caramel topping came out perfectly. The only thing to note is if you are going to keep the tarts for longer than a day the skip the caramel part as it doesn’t stay crispy for long. Simply dust with icing sugar instead.

Recipe – makes 8 tarts – adapted from Jamie Oliver

Ingredients

250 gms sheet of all-butter puff pastry
1 Tbsp caster sugar

Filling

1 cup Ultra Mel vanilla or cinnamon flavour
2 large free-range eggs
2 Tbsp caster sugar + 2 tsp
½ tsp cinnamon
Zest of half an orange
1 tsp vanilla extract or essence
2 tsp corn starch sifted
Additional cinnamon to sprinkle optional

Caramel topping (optional) – or dust with icing sugar

Juice of 1 orange
5 Tbsp sugar

Instructions

How to make easy custard tarts

Preheat the oven to 200c /
Lay the 250gm sheet of puff pastry on a floured surface and sprinkle the tablespoon of caster sugar over the surface. Roll this up into a log shape. Cut the log in half and then each half into 4 equal pieces so you have 8 equal sizes pieces. Using a rolling pin, roll each piece out using some flour to prevent sticking into te circle about 11-12cm in diameter.
Lightly 8 holes of a 12-hole muffin tin with cooking spray and press the pastry into 8 holes, making sure it comes up the side and a little over the edge. Bake for 8 minutes.
While that is baking make your filing buy whisking all the filling ingredients together with a whisk (make sure you sieve the cornflour in). When the pastry has prebaked for 8 minutes, fill each tart with the filling right to the top. You may have a little extra. Bake for 20 minutes and until the custard filling has set and the pastry is golden brown.
Carefully remove each custard tart from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool slightly.
Make the caramel by putting the juice and sugar into a small pot over low heat and cook until it becomes a dark caramel colour. Keep a close eye as it goes from golden to dark very quickly and be very careful when making this as it can easily burn. Drizzle the caramel over the custard tarts, allow to set and cool and serve. * Note – if you are wanting to store the tarts, skip the caramel topping as this does not stay hard for more than a day.

Author: Sam Linsell

Other delicious tarts:

Classic South African unbaked milk tarts

Cherry meringue tartlets

Chocolate & pear frangipani tart

Decadent chocolate and pine nut tart

*This post is sponsored by Ultra Mel

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8 Comments

Oh my word look to die for! Your images and styling just gets more awesome!! Superstar!!!

It was perfect the first time. I learn so much from you as well! Keep it up great post.

I’m so glad it worked out for you

Thanks Micky

your background is so unique, i love your photos. is this an old aluminium table

Hi, its an old metal table but not aluminium

I love Portuguese tarts, so cannot wait to try making your recipe. I’m in NZ and just wondering what Ultra Mel is? Also I love love your floral serving plates. Could I please ask what make they are? Thanks ??