At Flake, pastel de nata is the only star of the show

From a modest storefront in Brookline, Cristina Quintino can bake up to 200 pastéis de nata a day — golden, flaky tarts filled with rich, velvety custard, and a beloved staple of Portugal. “You can find them in almost every bakery back home,” says Quintino, who grew up in Lisbon. She originally came to Boston to attend Suffolk University, met her husband, Stephen Chen, and stayed in the area.

Last October, the couple opened Flake Bakery with blue-painted walls adorned with murals of sardines — a nod to Portugal’s cuisine and fishing culture. “I always had the itch to bring a bit of my home here,” Quintino says. To perfect their technique, they returned to Lisbon, training with a local baker to master the art of these iconic tarts — whose history dates back to the 18th century, when monks at the Monastery of Jerónimos in Belém created the recipe. Monks and nuns used egg whites to starch their clothing, leaving them with surplus yolks — perfect for baking custardy desserts.