Recipes...

When João was here, we cooked quite a lot! (well, at least to my standards...)
First we did some "Pastéis de Nata" for Eni's birthday...



And then some "Queques de Cenoura" (carrot muffins) also for Eni. We wanted to give her some Portuguese sweets, besides the Vintage Porto from 2003.





Aaaand, almost in the end, João decided to make up something, based on the "Pastéis de Nata" recipe... and it was so good! These were actually Eni's favorites! (chocolate never fails...)
So here, have some pictures and the recipe written by João (because Eni wanted to do it, which she did, and now I noticed there's another roll of that pasty in the fridge... probably more coming!)





Manheuse Chocolate Custards

pre made puff pasty
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons of flour
3 tablespoons of sugar (maybe more or less, according to your taste)
chocolate (whatever chocolate you like, whatever amount you like, wise men say “no amount of chocolate is too much chocolate)
2 or 3 teaspoons of coffee
1 teaspoon of cardamom
1 ½ cup of whole milk
1 cup or small box of cream
cinnamon (wise women say “no amount of cinnamon is too much cinnamon”)
other ingredients you may find interesting to throw in the mix, a personal touch is always good
Begin to fill the cups with the paste. Instructions on how to do so vary from paste to paste and cup to cup, but usually instructions may be found on the box or cover sheet. Anyway, it's good to have this done before starting with the filling, so you can focus on the filling later. Also, it's boring so it's good to put it away as quick as you can.
Having this done, you can start by melting the chocolate, if you use it in bars (which i advise) in the lightest fire you can. You can help it not sticking by adding some butter, just a teaspoon (oops, forgot to add the butter up there, but it's optional, anyway...). Have it melted, but don't waste too much time and start adding the milk, cream, and the egg yolks. Start stirring and don't stop until the very end. I know it sounds a bit boring and tiring, but you'll start smelling it and then you won't want to stop.
Anyway, add the cardamom, coffee cinnamon too. After a while, the yolks must be cooked already, so you can start tasting and adding more coffee or other ingredients so it meets your taste. In the beginning, the mix will look maybe a bit too light, but it will darken eventually, don't worry.
When there are no more chocolate lumps in the mix, add the sugar and the flour and stir away till you have a soft paste. Once you achieve this, you can stop the fire and start filling the cups (see, if you hadn't done them before, you would have to do them now...).
Once filled, put them in the oven, which must be pre-heated and as hot as possible, so the paste gets really crusty.
Take them out when they look good enough or when you can't resist the smell anymore.