No plane ticket required for these Portuguese custard tarts! Creamy vegan custard is housed in a crisp puff pastry shell before being baked to golden perfection.

Confession.  I made these Portuguese custard tarts – traditionally known as pastel de nata – before I moved house a couple of months ago.  Normally I don’t make things that far in advance of publishing.  I wish I were that organised.  But then I DID move house and I tried to keep up with posting recipes and sorting boxes and finding new homes for everything.  Then trying to remember where those new homes were.

So things slid or got pushed back and these dinky little vegan tarts were one of those things.  But they’re here now!  And they were so worth the wait.  Even though you, dear reader, didn’t actually know you were waiting.

Another reason I made them before moving was the village community.  I’ve mentioned it before but the people made it, IMO, the best place in the country to live.  And I was lucky that they liked my food.  I also knew that if I made these without the option to share I would have inhaled the whole lot without even a second thought.  So they got shared and enjoyed and my hips and knees thanked me.  I just inhaled 6 of them instead of 12.

Let’s talk vegan custard tart ingredients:

Silken tofu – if you’re new to veganism or vegan curious, or even a seasoned vegan you might wonder what on earth tofu is doing in a sweet recipe.  Tofu is incredibly versatile – it has little to no flavour of its own so absorbs whatever flavour it’s paired with.  And silken tofu lends itself so very very well to anything creamy and rich.  I’ve used it for a variety of recipes – including this creamy lemon and basil pasta sauce and this chocolate tart.

Icing sugar – because we’re not cooking the custard before it goes in the tarts to be cooked, using icing sugar means it will be less grainy than using regular caster or granulated sugar.

Cornflour – this is what will help thicken the custard as we’re not using eggs.

How to make vegan pastel de nata:

Start with the tart cases.  If you’re feeling lazy/pushed for time you could skip the whole cinnamon roll part of the process and just use the pastry plain.  But honestly, it takes just a few more minutes and takes these vegan tarts to a whole new level of eating one after another after another.

Unroll your puff pastry sheet and sprinkle over the mixture of cinnamon and nutmeg, covering as much of the pastry as possible.  Then roll it up like a Swiss roll and cut into 12 equal segments.

With your palm, flatten each segment, swirl side up then roll out to a circle large enough to fit into a muffin tin so that some of the pastry is sitting proud of the tin (see photo above)

Bake the cases for 10 minutes in a preheated oven.  Then as soon as you take them out and the pastry is still pliable, use the back of the spoon to push the pastry, widening the hole for the filling

To make the filling, simply put all the filling ingredients – tofu, icing sugar, vanilla and cornflour – in a food processor or blender and whizz until smooth.  Scrape down the bowl as necessary.

Carefully pour the filling into the tart cases until they’re almost too full – the filling will shrink back slightly as it cooks. Do this as close to the oven as possible so you don’t have far to walk the tray!

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is cooked and the tarts wobble but are set.

Allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes before carefully lifting out onto a wire rack to cool completely.  Or just inhale while still warm … because the smell while they bake, oh my.

Looking for even more dessert pie recipes?  Try these:

Fudgy chocolate brownie pie

Bourbon chocolate pecan pie

Raspberry meringue pie

Rustic peach tart with orange and cardamom drizzle

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