Bakery Window · Custard Tart

Pastel de Nata

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The original recipe is still baked from a version kept secret by one Lisbon bakery, descended directly from the monks who invented it.

A pastel de nata is a small custard tart in flaky, crisp pastry, baked until the top is blistered and caramelized, then dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar. It's sold warm from bakery counters across Portugal, often eaten standing up with a coffee.

Why it's made this way: The tart was created by monks at the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon, who needed a use for leftover egg yolks after using egg whites to starch their robes; when the monastery closed in the 1830s, the recipe passed to a nearby sugar refinery, which still bakes it today.