This Low-Sugar Portuguese Egg Tarts is a PCOS-friendly recipe with 175 calories, 5g protein, and 5g carbs per serving. Ready in 50 minutes. High in fiber (1.4g), which supports insulin sensitivity.
Nutrition per Serving
Portuguese egg tarts with a crisp almond crust and a soft, lemony custard. Each tart has about 175 calories and 5g of carbs, with no added sugar. Makes 12, and the hands-on time is about 25 minutes.
Grocery list:
- Fine blanched almond flour
- Allulose
- Unsalted butter
- Whole milk
- Double (heavy) cream
- Eggs (6)
- Lemon
- Cinnamon sticks and ground cinnamon
- Cornstarch
- Vanilla extract
Nutrition notes: the carb count leaves out the allulose. Your body does not absorb allulose as sugar, so it does not raise blood glucose. Each tart has about 1.6g of sugar, almost all of it from the milk and cream.
Makes 12. Keep them in the fridge in a sealed box for up to 3 days. Warm them for 5 minutes in a low oven to crisp the crust back up. The custard does not freeze well.
Ingredients
Instructions
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Heat the oven to 180C fan, 200C conventional, or 400F. Grease a 12-hole muffin tin well, or use a silicone one. Almond crusts stick more than wheat ones.Make the crust. Stir the almond flour, 1 tablespoon of allulose and the salt together. Pour in the melted butter and mix until it looks like damp sand and holds when you squeeze it.Put a heaped tablespoon of the mix into each hole. Press it over the base and up the sides with your thumb or the back of a small measuring spoon. Aim for an even shell about 4mm thick. Chill the tin for 10 minutes so the butter firms up.Bake the empty shells for 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges are just turning gold. Set aside. Turn the oven up to 210C fan, 230C conventional, or 450F.Start the custard. Put the milk, cream, lemon peel and cinnamon stick in a small pan. Heat until steaming with small bubbles at the edge, then take it off the heat and leave it for 5 minutes to infuse. Lift out the peel and the cinnamon stick.In a bowl, whisk the 50g of allulose with the cornstarch, then whisk in a splash of the warm milk to make a smooth paste. Whisk in the rest of the milk, pour it all back into the pan, and stir over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes until it thickens to the texture of single cream. Let it cool for 10 minutes.Whisk the yolks, whole egg and vanilla in a jug. Slowly whisk in the warm milk. Strain it through a sieve so the custard bakes up silky.Fill each shell about three quarters full. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the custard is set at the edges with a slight wobble in the middle and the top has brown spots. Allulose browns faster than sugar, so check from 10 minutes. If the crust edges darken before the tops spot, cover the tin loosely with foil.For the classic scorched top, slide the tin under a hot grill (broiler) for 1 to 2 minutes and watch it closely.Cool in the tin for 15 minutes before lifting them out with a small knife. The custard firms as it cools. Dust with cinnamon and eat warm or at room temperature.
Why this works for PCOS
A bakery egg tart is mostly white flour pastry and sugar custard. That is a fast load of carbs with little to slow it down, which is the pattern that pushes insulin up when you already have insulin resistance.
This version keeps what makes the tart worth eating: the crisp shell, the soft custard, the lemon and cinnamon, the scorched top. It changes what it is made from. The crust is almond flour and butter. The custard is eggs, milk and cream, sweetened with allulose. Only one tablespoon of cornstarch is spread across all 12 tarts, so each one has about 5g of carbs.
The ingredients doing the work
- Almond flour: replaces wheat pastry. It has far fewer carbs, plus fibre, fat and magnesium. Low magnesium is common in PCOS, and magnesium plays a part in how your cells respond to insulin.
- Egg yolks: set the custard and give it the rich yellow colour. They bring protein, fat, choline and some vitamin D.
- Allulose: a rare sugar that tastes and browns like sugar but does not raise blood glucose. It is the reason the tops still blister.
- Milk and cream: the fat in the cream slows how fast the meal is digested, and the custard tastes like the real thing.
- Cinnamon: mostly here for flavour. It is the classic finish on a Portuguese tart.
How to eat them
One or two tarts after a meal with protein and vegetables is the best way to enjoy dessert with PCOS. Eaten after food, the rise in blood sugar is smaller than eating sweets on an empty stomach. These tarts are rich, so one usually satisfies.
Swaps and variations
Nut free: there is no good swap for the almond crust. Bake the custard alone in greased ramekins for 18 to 20 minutes instead. Lighter: use all whole milk and no cream. The custard sets a little softer and each tart drops to about 150 calories. Sweetener: a monk fruit and erythritol blend works, but it will not brown, so rely on the grill for colour.
How this fits a PCOS week
Treats you cut out tend to come back as binges. A treat you can plan for does not. PCOS Meal Planner builds a full week around your calories, your symptoms and the foods you like, dessert included, then gives you the grocery list.
Why this Low-Sugar Portuguese Egg Tarts works for PCOS
At 5g of carbohydrates per serving, this Low-Sugar Portuguese Egg Tarts is on the lower-carb end, which suits women with PCOS who have confirmed insulin resistance or who notice strong post-meal energy crashes. Pair lower-carb meals like this with a generous portion of non-starchy vegetables to keep fibre intake up.
Fat makes up about 82% of calories in this dish. Dietary fat plays a load-bearing role in PCOS because sex hormones are synthesised from cholesterol, and very-low-fat eating can suppress hormone production over time. The 2023 PCOS guideline does not specify a strict fat target, but most clinicians recommend at least 25-35% of calories from a mix of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated sources.
Desserts on a PCOS plan are not banned, but timing and pairing matter. Eating sweet foods immediately after a balanced meal (rather than on an empty stomach) blunts the blood sugar response, since protein and fat slow gastric emptying. This Low-Sugar Portuguese Egg Tarts works best as an occasional post-dinner option rather than a standalone snack.
At 44mg of sodium per serving, this Low-Sugar Portuguese Egg Tarts fits comfortably within the 1500-2300mg daily target most cardiology and PCOS guidance agrees on. Lower-sodium meals are useful for women with PCOS who also experience bloating or who are managing blood pressure alongside metabolic concerns.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, this Low-Sugar Portuguese Egg Tarts recipe is designed to be PCOS-friendly. At 175 calories per serving with 5g of protein, it supports balanced blood sugar and hormonal health. It also provides 1.4g of fiber, which helps with insulin sensitivity.
This recipe takes about 50 minutes total. Prep time is 25 minutes and cook time is 25 minutes. It makes 12 servings, so you can meal prep for multiple days.
Per serving: 175 calories, 5g protein (11%), 5g carbs, 16g fat. Plus 1.4g fiber. PCOS meal plans typically aim for 30% protein, 35% fat, 35% carbs to support insulin sensitivity.
Yes, this recipe works well as a PCOS-friendly Dessert. At 175 calories, it fits within typical PCOS meal plan targets for Dessert. Pair it with other PCOS-friendly foods throughout the day for balanced nutrition.
This recipe can be part of a structured PCOS meal plan. It makes 12 servings, making it great for meal prep. For a complete weekly plan tailored to your PCOS type, take our free 60-second quiz at pcosmealplanner.com/pcos-quiz to get a personalized 7-day meal plan.
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