Are Pastéis de Nata Halal?

Pastéis de nata are Portugal's custard tarts: a crisp spiral of laminated pastry filled with egg-yolk custard and baked hot enough to blister the top. The filling is egg yolks, milk or cream, sugar and a little flour, flavoured with lemon peel and cinnamon. There is no meat, no gelatin and no alcohol in the recipe, so they are Halal.^[3][1]

Where they come from

The tarts began in the Jerónimos Monastery in Belém, on the edge of Lisbon. Convents used egg whites to starch clothes and turned the leftover yolks into sweets. When the monasteries closed in the 1830s, the recipe passed to a nearby sugar refinery, and the shop there still sells them as pastéis de Belém. Everywhere else they are pastéis de nata. A single one is a pastel de nata.

The one thing to check

The only ingredient that could change the answer is the fat in the pastry.^[2] Portuguese bakeries and supermarket versions use butter or margarine, and both are Halal. Laminated pastry can in principle be made with lard, so if you want to be certain, ask; on a pack, the ingredient list will say.

Flavourings do not change it. Some recipes add vanilla, and vanilla extract is covered on its own page: see vanilla extract.

Hong Kong and Macau egg tarts

Egg tarts in Hong Kong are a different recipe. Their custard is smoother and yellower, and the crust, either shortcrust or a flaky pastry, is traditionally made with lard. Macau's version is close to the Portuguese one, and the Portuguese-style tarts sold by chains across Asia follow that model, but the pastry fat varies by bakery. For any egg tart outside Portugal, ask what is in the crust.

Buying them abroad

In Portugal, in Portuguese bakeries elsewhere and in European supermarkets, the ingredient list is short: flour, butter or margarine, sugar, egg yolk, milk, starch. A vegetarian mark settles the pastry fat. For other breakfast pastries, see croissants, and for the custard's main ingredient, eggs.