Portuguese custard tarts

Directions

• Dust work surface with plain flour and icing sugar and roll puff pastry to a 45x30 cm rectangle; roll lengthways into a long sausage.
• Cut pastry into 24 wheels about 1–2 cm thick.
• Lightly roll each wheel to fit two 12-hole non-stick fairy cake tins.
• Press pastry circles into tins to form thin cases and chill until needed.
• Heat oven to 220C (fan 200C/gas 7). Make sugar syrup: bring caster sugar, 200 ml water, lemon zest and cinnamon stick to a boil, reduce until syrupy, cool then remove cinnamon and lemon.
• Whisk eggs, egg yolks and cornflour until smooth in a large pan.
• Heat milk with vanilla pod seeds until just below boiling. Gradually pour hot milk over egg mixture, whisking, then cook on low heat while continually whisking.
• Add cooled sugar syrup to the custard and whisk until slightly thickened.
• Pass custard through a sieve, pour into pastry cases and bake for 15 minutes until pastry is golden and custard darkened.
• Cool completely in tins, then sift over icing sugar and sprinkle ground cinnamon to serve.