Defying Gravity and Learning to Bake in Portugal

The last couple days have been pretty hot. The heat made me wonder if there was a beach within walking distance that wasn’t the Tagus river beach we’ve already seen. I opened Google maps and searched “beach”. Weirdly, the first thing on the list was something called “Floating Me.” This is a spot where if you sit just right on a railing it gives the illusion that you are floating. With no other plans for the afternoon, we decided to check it out. Today, Alexis and I took a cooking class and learned to make pastel de nata. It was so fun!

Floating in Alfama

The “Floating Me” location was in the Alfama neighborhood, which is quickly becoming my favorite neighborhood in Lisbon. We didn’t really know what to expect as we navigated the streets and alleyways to find it. Was this a really popular place and we’d be awkwardly waiting around to take pictures? What we found was the opposite. It was completely quiet and Alexis said it felt like we were invading someones backyard. We all quickly took a picture and it truly looked like we were floating.

Getting Flaky in Lisbon

I’ve already mentioned how popular the custard tart pastel de nata is here in Portugal. Today, Alexis and I took a cooking class to learn how to make it! The class was at the Compadre Cooking School and we had so much fun!

The class started with a brief history lesson about the pastry. It was created by Catholic monks in Belém sometime before the 19th century. Monks commonly used egg whites to starch their religious habits. This left them with an abundance of leftover egg yolks and they would use them in pastries.

When the monastery was threatened with closure during a period of political upheaval, the monks began selling the tarts at a nearby sugar refinery to generate income. The monasteries were dissolved in 1834. At that time the recipe was sold to that refinery’s owners, who in 1837 opened Pastéis de Belém. This bakery still exists today and uses the original recipe under closely guarded secrecy. Those made at that original bakery are technically called pastéis de Belém — every other version is called pastel de nata.

We Mixed, We Baked, We Devoured

To make the actual pastry part of the recipe takes up to 7 hours. Because of this, we learned how to make it but we used puff pastry they had already prepared. The process was very interesting to learn and not something I have ever done. The instructor told us you can always buy puff pastry already prepared but insisted it’s not as good.

We started by making the custard filling. Alexis did a great job separating the egg yolks and the entire process was quick and easy.

After the custard cooled, we spooned it into the pastry tins we had prepared and they were ready to bake.

As we waited for the pastel de nata to bake, we used the leftover egg whites to make farófias. Farófias are a very traditional Portuguese dessert, made with a sweet cooked meringue and topped with a runny custard. The meringue is cooked in milk, sugar, cinnamon and lemon zest. It’s then covered with the same custard used in pastel de nata filling and topped with cinnamon.

The Final Products

Once everything was finished, we sat around the table with the other participants and enjoyed our final product. The farófias were super sweet and not our favorite. The pastel de nata was perfect! We had enough leftovers to take some home for us all to enjoy after dinner. The boys declared them the best ones we’ve tried yet!

As we walked home from our cooking class I took more pictures of the buildings we passed. I never tire of the architecture around here. We got a link to the recipes we made and numerous other Portuguese recipes. I’m looking forward to trying to make the pastel de nata for friends and family back home. Maybe we’ll have a party and serve it with some Donut Rum – Ha!