Portuguese Pastel de Nata with Cinnamon, Lemon Zest and Caramelized Custard

Ingredients

• 1 sheet store-bought puff pastry, thawed
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1.5 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 cinnamon stick
• Zest of 1 lemon, in wide strips
• 6 large egg yolks
• Ground cinnamon for dusting
• Powdered sugar for dusting
• Butter for greasing

Instructions

1. Make sugar syrup: combine sugar, water, cinnamon stick, and lemon zest strips in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil without stirring. Cook to 220°F (just below soft-ball stage). Remove from heat. Discard cinnamon and lemon zest.
2. Make flour paste: whisk flour into 1/4 cup of the cold milk until completely smooth. Heat remaining 3/4 cup milk in a saucepan until steaming. Pour hot milk into flour paste, whisking constantly. Cook 1 minute until thickened to a béchamel. Remove from heat.
3. Temper egg yolks: whisk yolks together, then slowly stream in the hot sugar syrup while whisking vigorously. Slowly add the flour mixture and whisk until smooth and combined. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve.
4. Preheat oven to 550°F (or as high as your oven goes) with a rack in the top third.
5. Roll puff pastry tightly into a log. Cut into 12 equal rounds. Press each round into a greased muffin tin, using damp fingers to push the pastry up the sides to form thin, high-walled cups.
6. Fill each pastry cup 3/4 full with custard — they will puff up but settle as they cool.
7. Bake 10-12 minutes until pastry is golden and custard is deeply caramelized with black spots on top — these spots are essential and correct. Cool 5 minutes. Dust with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Best eaten warm.