One of my husband’s favourites, Tarte de Natas or Portuguese Cream tart is one of Portugal’s favourites desserts. Delightfully airy, sweet and creamy, tarte de natas is surprisingly easy to make and wonderfully subtle in flavour to work as the perfect end to any meal. I still remember the first time I had this. My husband made it for our first Christmas together using his grandmother’s recipe and much to my embarrassment, I cried tears of joy when I had the first bite 🙂 I hope you try this recipe; you may just cry a few tears of joy yourselves.

Ingredients (12-14 portions)

• 400 grams of double cream
• 400 grams of sweetened condensed milk
• 12 grams of powdered gelatine
• 60 ml of boiled water
• 160-200 grams of rich tea biscuits/ Marie biscuits/ digestive biscuits; rich tea biscuits or Marie biscuits are traditionally used and are absolutely delicious here but feel free to use any cookie that you like 🙂
• 80-100 grams of melted butter; using butter and biscuits in 1:2 ratio always works

Method

• Place the biscuits in a food processor and  pulse until pulverised; alternatively, place the cookies in a freezer bag and pound them fine with a rolling pin/mullet/pan/anything heavy.
• Pour in the butter into the food processor and pulse for another minute until everything is well combined and the mixture looks like wet sand.
• Pour most of the mixture into a lined spring-form pan or a pie dish and press it firmly to form the base of the tart; save about 1/4th for sprinkle on top.
• Place the tart base in the fridge to set while you prepare the sweetened cream.
• Pour the gelatine into just boiled water.
• Stir it gently to dissolve and set aside; you can microwave in 10-second intervals to dissolve the gelatine completely if needed.
• Whisk the double cream with a balloon whisk/ stand mixer/ hand whisk until soft peaks form.
• Pour in the condensed milk and mix until well combined.
• Ensuring the all of the gelatine are completely dissolved in the water, pour it into the sweetened cream mixture and stir to combine well.
• Whisk again to thicken the filling into soft peaks.
• Pour it over the base gently and sprinkle the rest of the pulverised biscuits in a uniform layer.
• Cover well with a clingfilm wrap and refrigerate overnight or about 8 hours until the cream tart is completely set.
• When you are ready to serve, carefully run a butter knife or a pallet knife along the side of the tart to remove from the pan.
• Serve just on its own or with some fresh fruits and berries and enjoy!