A pressa é inimiga da perfeição [haste is the enemy of perfection] – Portuguese proverb

If haste is the enemy of perfection, then time’s its best friend – and if you want prova, just try our delicious natas! The original recipe for our sweet, delicately flaky custard-filled pastries was perfected over 3 centuries ago at the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon, then faithfully passed down for generations.

It seems fitting that the story of our divine pastel de nata would begin in a monastery – and although things didn’t work out so well for the monks, we have their love of crisp clothes to thank for the creation of these little flavour bombs. História verdadeira [true story]: back then, they used egg whites to starch their clothes; and to keep the yolks from going to waste, they started baking them into all sorts of experimental cakes and pastries – until one fine day the pastel de nata was born!

After that, Portuguese culture would never be the same… and not just because of the nata. The Liberal Revolution of 1820 saw monasteries and religious orders all over Portugal close down, and Jerónimos was no exception. Not even the money the monks had been making selling their natas was enough to save it, and it seemed their secret would disappear with them.

Providence, however, had other sweet, sweet planos.

As some are fond of saying, o destino escreve certo por linhas tortas [destiny writes straight over crooked lines]. When the monastery shut in 1833, it sold its recipe to a nearby sugar refinery – which opened the whole world to the gloriousness of the pastel de nata! The very same mouth-watering, tradicional natas we’re proud to be baking at CASA DAS NATAS.

Baked fresh every day, they’ve also been three hundred years in the making… which (even by Portuguese standards) means you’ve probably waited long enough to discover them for yourself.