Not quite the custard tart

So what do you do with the left over egg yolks? I usually make custard, pastry cream or what the french call it crème patisseri. From that you can fill it into profiteroles (cream puffs) éclairs or napoleons.

Anyways for this post we won't be doing any of that, too much work for a busy week night but rather i will make something easy and quick, custard tarts. What I like about eggs/custard tarts is that nice eggy sweet smooth custard blend in a warm buttery flaky pastry.

Portuguese Custard Tarts
What worked? The main component, the custard! simple and delicious of course.
What didn't? The pre-made puff pastry wasn't that puffy at all. Perhaps it was the temperature of the oven which quickly cooked the custard and not enough on the pastry. I probably make it from scratch next time when I get the time.

3 to 4 egg yolks (depends how eggy you like it)
100g (1/2 cup) Sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
400ml full cream milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 sheet pre-made puff pastry, slightly thawed

Custard
In a saucepan in low heat, whisk in egg yolks, sugar, cornflour and milk together until there's no more lumps. Put the heat up to medium and cook until the mixture thickens and starts to bubble. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour into a clean bowl, cling wrap the surface to stop a skin from forming and let it cool.

Pastry
Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F). Lightly butter grease a 12-hole muffin pan. Cut the puff pastry in half and place on piece over the other, roll and then cut the pastry into 6 pieces per pastry sheet. Use a rolling pin to flatten each cut piece of pastry into a circle about 10cm in diameter and place into the muffin pan.

Spoon the cooled custard into each pastry case approx 3/4 of muffin pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the pastry is golden. If you do want some dark bits, turn up the oven to 210°C for the last 5 minutes of baking. Remove from the oven and allow the tarts to cool for 5 minutes in the pan before taking them out to finish cooling on a wire rack.