You eat these warm, ten minutes from the oven, or you eat a different tart. Shatteringly laminated pastry, a custard that spots like a leopard in a blast of heat, cinnamon and not much else. There is no later. A bica beside them, standing up in a pastelaria if you can.
Born in the Jerónimos monastery at Belém, and sold nearby when the religious houses were dissolved. Pastéis de Belém still bakes from a secret the rest of Lisbon has spent two centuries approximating. The country's most travelled sweet; still best just out of the oven.
The pastry walls must stand in vertical layers. The oven should be fierce. Dust with cinnamon while they are hot. Do not wait for them to cool.
Method
- 01
Roll the puff pastry into a tight log, as if you were making a cinnamon bun, then cut it into 12 pieces. Press each piece into a tart tin, working from the center out, so the pastry layers stand vertical on the wall. Those upright layers are what shatter. Dip your thumbs in water if the dough sticks, and don't flatten the coils — they must remain coiled.
- 02
Boil the sugar and water until you have a thick syrup that coats a spoon. Meanwhile infuse the milk with the lemon zest and cinnamon stick over a gentle heat, then whisk in the flour until smooth. Beat the hot syrup into the milk, then the egg yolks, off the heat, until the custard is silky. Strain it if you see lumps; it will finish in the oven, so don't cook it now.
- 03
Fill each pastry shell three-quarters full with the custard — no more, or it will flood the layers and you will lose the shatter. Work steadily; the custard is thin and the shells are waiting. If a bit spills on the rim, wipe it so it doesn't burn. You should see a little pastry wall above the filling, like a dike.
- 04
Bake at 475°F, or hotter if your oven will go, until the custard spots dark brown like a leopard and the pastry is deep gold, 12 to 15 minutes. The spots are not burning; they are the point. Dust with cinnamon while they are still hot. Eat them warm, ten minutes from the oven — there is no later; a cooled pastel is a different tart.
