Cake And Eat It: How To Make Portugese Custard Tarts

The Portuguese custard tart is on the march. These flaky pastry cups filled with black speckled custard have been baked in Lisbon for at least two centuries, originally by monks in the Jerónimos Monastery. When the monasteries were shut down in the 1820 revolution, the monks were scattered into the streets and some entrepreneurial brothers offered their custard tart making skills to a bakery in Belém. In 1837 the bakery began selling pastéis de Belém (Belém pastries).