Recipe for a Portuguese Cream Pie

This is very well known Portuguese cream pie especially in the Algarve, South of Portugal, from where I come from. In Portuguese it is called "Tarte de Natas", which literally means cream pie. It is quite cheap and very simple to do and does not involve pastry nor is baked. It is simply enjoyed fresh and as chilled as possible. I am sure you will not regret it.

• 0.5 l of fresh cream
• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
• 5 to 10 sheets of gelatin
• Tea or butter cookies

For the crust just simply crush the cookies in food processor until they are fine and crumbly. Normally it takes about 5 to 10 small cokies, but of course this depends on the cookies you use. Just be sure it will cover the whole pie. On low heat gently warm the gelatin sheets in a small volume of water and mix it until they are completely dissolved, turn off heat and set aside to cool slightly off and until the rest of the filling is ready. Next, beat the cream until you get thick whipped cream. Then add the sweetened condensed milk and the melted gelatine and mix all together. Pour the mixture in a spring form pan, the same you would use for a cheesecake, and cover it all up it the crushed cookies you prepared before. Put it in the fridge for some hours, about 4 hours will do and serve it cold.

I know that gelatin comes in a variety of forms and strengths in different countries throughout the world. I know that the 10 sheets that I normally use equals to about 18 grams in North America. This amount might equal about 2 of the Knorr gelatin envelopes. You can also use gelatine powder. I have tried sometimes and it works just as well. About 10 to 20 g should do. A good rule of thumb is to check your regional bake cheesecake recipe, and adjust this cream pie recipe to similar quantities. To be safe add a little extra as cream tends to need a bit more. If you don’t like cookies you can replace them by a mixture of chocolate powder with bits of dark chocolate. I have also tried this and it worked just as well.

Some people, prefer to cover the base of spring form pan with the cookie powder and put the filling on top of it and then cover it up with the remaining cookie powder.

Enjoy and bon appétit!