Portuguese Shortcrust Custard Tart

Also known as: Portuguese Custard Tartlet · Shortcrust Nata Tart

A broad shallow sweet-pastry tartlet with nata custard and lemon.

Origin: Portuguese pastry tradition · direct variant of Bom Bocado
Region: Portugal
Season: Year-round

Sweetness

Richness

Difficulty

Tarte de Nata is a broad shallow individual tartlet. Its fluted shell uses firm crumbly sweet pastry; inside sits custard similar to Pastel de Nata filling, scented with lemon and toasted in small oven spots.

The pastry resolves the main confusion: it is not an enlarged Pastel de Nata because it does not use puff pastry. It is also lower and wider than Bom Bocado, from which it directly derives.

Ingredients

Sweet pastry
Milk or cream
Egg yolks and eggs
Sugar
Lemon

Taste & texture

Rich soft lemon custard, caramelised spots and a sweet shell that snaps like a biscuit.

Variations

Diameter, browning and lemon intensity vary. Sweet pastry and broad shallow proportions define the form.

Where to try it

Look in traditional pastry shops beside Bom Bocado and Pastel de Nata. Inspect the shell to identify it correctly.

Pairs well with

Espresso, optionally with cinnamon.

History

Fabrico Próprio classifies it as a direct Bom Bocado variant transformed into a lower, wider tartlet. Its humorous description says it is sought by people for whom one Bom Bocado is not enough.

No inventor or date is documented. The innovation is one of scale and proportion: the same relationship among sweet pastry, nata custard and lemon gains a larger area and a different shell-to-filling ratio.

Sources: fabricoproprio.net

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