Egg Tart

Have you ever had these little gems? Each bite comes with a slightly sweet flaky crust with a creamy egg custard…so good!

– Before the post…a few words regarding today’s situation.

During this uncertain time, I still want to keep my blog on… cooking/baking is a therapy for me.  I have been sharing bread and even meals with friends and neighbors. This is the time where compassion and kindness are the greatest human emotion.

As we are all living the unthinkable, I wish you all faith, courage, patience and love…may this situation be over soon.

– Back to the post…

I still remember when my son was about 1 year and we were in a local dim sum…he loved these egg tarts…but only the custard…he would spoon all the egg custard and leave us the crust…similar to what he did with the Oreo cookies. One day I found all the Oreo cookies in the jar without the cream and all of chocolate wafer cookies had his teeth marks…

– Where are these egg tart originated?

Apparently, these are a lighter version from the Portuguese egg tart (pastel de nata) and were introduced to Hong Kong and Macau by the Portuguese colonizers.

In my opinion the Portuguese tarts custard are denser and milkier as compared to the Chinese one, which has less milk and are shinier.

– Where can I find these egg tarts?

They are usually found in Chinese bakeries and dim sum…and best when served warm.

– Is it a lot of work to make these egg tarts?

For the longest time I want to make these egg tarts but the thought of molding each tart by hand individually was too intimidating…until this past Saturday when nothing was planned, and I decided to work on it…

To my surprised it was a piece of cake…and not as laborious as I thought…making the crust was easy, molding it too a bit of time since it had to be done one by one, and the egg custard was super, I repeat super easy.

– How can I store the leftover egg tarts?

You can store them in the refrigerator and use a toaster oven or an air-fryer to warm them since they are better when served warm.

– Are you ready to try?

This recipe was inspired by Kathrine Kwa YouTube video  with minor adjustments.

Ingredients:

Crust dough

• 100 g butter, slightly softened
• 30 g sugar
• 1 large egg
• 200 g all-purpose flour

Egg custard

• 4 large eggs, I used extra large eggs
• 250 ml boiling water
• 100 g sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 100 ml milk

Method:

Crust dough

Using a hand mixer, soften the butter until creamy, add the sugar and continue to mix, stopping occasionally and scrap the sides of the bowl.

Gently whisk the egg and add to the butter mixture, half at the time until creamed mixture.

Slowly add the sieved flour into the creamed mixture and use a spatula to mix until resembles a coarse crumble.

Using your hands put together the coarse crumble into a ball. Wrap the dough with plastic film and refrigerate for approximately 30 minutes.

In the meantime, make the egg custard.

Egg custard

Dissolve the sugar into the hot water, mix well until all the sugar is dissolved. And set aside until cool to room temperature.

Whisk eggs gently, add the milk and vanilla extract. Pour the sugar water to the egg mixture and stir it. To avoid bubbles do not whisk vigorously.

Strain the egg mixture to a very fine mesh strainer.

Assembly

Preheat oven to 300^oF.

Remove the crust dough from the refrigerator and using a roller pin flat the dough to approximately 2 mm (⅛ in).

Cut dough with a cookie cutter that is just a bit larger than your tart tin in size. Line dough in the middle of tart tins, one by one.

Lightly press the dough with your thumbs, starting from the bottom then up to the sides. While pressing the dough, turn the tart tin clockwise/anti-clockwise in order to make an even tart shell. Trim away any excess dough.

Alternatively, you can weight approximately 25-28 g of the of the dough, make a ball and place in the center of the tart tins and with your thumbs press until the dough covers the tin like the method describe above.

Use a fork and poke holes the bottom of the dough. Pour the egg mix into the tart shells and bake for 15 minutes, or until the edges of the tarts are lightly browned. Turn the oven temperature down to 275^oF and continue to bake for another 10 minutes. Keep an eye on the tarts and once the egg custard starts to puff up, open a little the oven door to avoid the custard to over bake.

To make sure the egg custard is done, poke a toothpick at the center of the tart and if the toothpick standstill, the tarts are done.

Remove form the oven and let cool on the wire rack.

Serve warm.

– Care for more dessert recipes? Check on these…

Thank you for visiting Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!