Egg Tarts

Believe it or not, this is my first successful chinese egg tart attempt! I would say it’s been eight years since I made my very first egg tart, with less than exciting results; burnt blistered top, overly sweet yada yada which I could sneakily disguise as Portugese egg tarts (brulee style) except that it’s not the correct pastry <hehe> But thanks to Wendy of Table For 2 or More,  any qualms I have regarding the difficulty level of this treat can now be put to rest. It was pretty straightforward. I have polished many egg tarts in my lifetime; from bakeries to restaurants to dim sum parlours in Hong Kong, on the street etc. Which chinese egg tart do you prefer? The short crust pastry version (pictured above) or dim sum style with the intricate layers of flaky puff pastry? I love both but for the flaky version, it has to be done really really well; it must be petite and not cloyingly greasy as lard is used instead of butter.

Gimme gimme gimme!!

Wendy’s recipe produces a really light and delicate texture for both egg custard and buttery crumbly pastry. The pastry does require a little bit of work and finesse as it is so short that it just wants to crumble but the mouth-feel is excellent! I’ve made very minor variations to the recipe; a little salt here, vanilla essence here, icing sugar etc. and have added some notes on how to dislodge the very fragile tarts from the tins. It is so fragile that Wendy recommended eating this with a spoon! I actually couldn’t wait to bake them so I’ve fast-tracked the process by freezing the pastry cases hard for 30 minutes instead of the 2 hour to overnight chilling in the refrigerator <grin….I couldn’t wait>. Any notes or additions on my part are highlighted in blue.

Egg Tarts

Egg Tart recipe sourced from Wendy of Table for 2 or More

Pastry
250g plain flour
2 tbsp castor sugar (I used Icing Sugar)
1 egg yolk
150g cold unsalted butter, cubed (I left this to soften before creaming)
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1. Cream the butter with the egg yolk and sugar.
2. Add in flour. Mix well. (If the dough is sticky for you , well maybe your yolks are larger than mine, add in extra flour by the teaspoon until it no longer feels sticky, but got a slight flour feel to it, but not too much though, as it will toughen the crust. the borderline of stickiness and dry feel is very thin.. so, add extra flour with caution)
3. Roll out pastry in between two sheets of plastic (I used silicon baking paper) into thickness of about 4mm. Stamp out 9–10cm circles of pastry with a pastry cutter.
4. Lightly press the pastry circles into foil tart cases. (I used aluminium tart tins.) Make sure no holes or pastry breakage is visible as the custard might leak and make dislodging difficult.
   Refrigerate the lined foil cases/tart tins for 2 hours/ overnight. (I wanted to fast track this so I froze them till solid for 30 minutes)  
5. Melt the sugar in hot water, add milk, salt, vanilla essence. Beat all the eggs lightly and mix in all together. (I chilled this for 30 minutes before using) 
6. Sieve egg mixture and pour into the cold tart crust.
7. Bake at 180^oC for 25 minutes. (I placed all my tarts on a baking tray and it took 23 minutes to cook as I have a very hot oven. The tarts are ready when the center is still slightly wobbly. Do not overbake! The custard will continue to set when it cools)
8. Let cool for at least 40 minutes to an hour (It’s cold now in Melbourne so mine cooled really fast). To dislodge the tarts, quickly and carefully overturn the tart flush onto a flat plate. Jiggle the tart tins lightly or with the tip of a knife, just encourage the pastry out of the tin. Carefully overturn tarts onto paper cases. If the tart refuses to come out, then best to eat it out of the tin with a spoon since the custard has leaked and stuck the pastry to the tin. 

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