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Cantonese Egg Tarts 港式蛋挞

 
I have this album in my personal Facebook account which I have it named as the Star recipe of the Week whereby I will get friends to share a recipe with my readers on a weekly basis. I adapted this egg tarts recipe from the first Star Recipe shared by my friend Qianli. She is an awesome home-cook and I always drool over photos of her food posting which she took great effort and love to prepare for her family.

This egg tarts recipe was on my to-do list and I finally had the time and mood to attempt it. However, I only succeeded on the 6th attempt. There was only one main reason which caused the failure - the size of the tart tins. Yes, this is such a crucial point! Also, because my tart tins are smaller than  Qianli's, if I'd used Qianli's exact recipe, the pastry would have been so thick and would puff up so much that the filling would overflow. During the trial baking, I realised the custard puffed up so easily too, resulting in shrinking and wrinkled custard surface. Hence, the baking time and temperature have to be adjusted as well. In view of these, I modified Qianli's recipe again and again and again and again and again....until I was satisfied with it. There is in fact nothing wrong with Qianli's recipe but I have to modify it to suit my tart tins. That simple.
 
Here's Qianli's original recipe: 
 
Qianli's tart tin

This recipe makes 12 3-inch tarts (actually it's 3 and 1/2-inch - refer to above pic)

Ingredients for tart pastry:
140g unsalted butter
1/2 egg
70g icing sugar
200g flour

Ingredients for egg filing:
70g sugar
150ml water
2 eggs
40ml evaporated milk

1) Combine all ingredients for tart pastry. Mix all ingredients with hands to form a dough. Chill for 20 mins. It should not be sticky when use it.
 
2) Boil water and sugar (no mixing). Set aside to cool completely.
 
3) Divide e dough evenly to 12 portions. Press the dough into the tart tins.
 
4) Mix the eggs and milk into the sugar water. Sift the mixture for a smooth egg filing.
 
5) Pour the egg filing into the tarts. 80% full for each tarts.
 
6) Bake in pre-heat oven at 200c for 15-20 mins until set.
 
7) Let the egg tarts cool and remove the tart tins.

And here's my version because my tart tins are small, measuring 1 and 3/4-inch by base and 2 and 3/4-inch on top.


Angela's tart tin

My recipe yields only 6 because it was baking attempt on trial. I baked 6 egg tarts from scratch in 50 minutes. Here's how I do it :)

This recipe makes 6 using 2 and 3/4-inch tart tins (refer to above pic).

Ingredients for tart pastry:
- 35g unsalted cold butter (cubed)
- 1 tbs egg taken from the 1 egg for the filling
- 20g icing sugar
- 60g plain flour/all purpose flour

Ingredients for egg filing:
- 30g fine sugar
- 65ml water
- 1 egg
- 20ml evaporated milk

1) 1200hr - Combine cold butter, flour and icing sugar. Rub cold butter into flour and icing sugar using finger tips until resemble bread crumbs. Add egg and knead into a dough. Wrap dough using cling wrap and let the dough rest and chill in fridge for 20 minutes.

2) 1205hr - Meanwhile, combine water and sugar (2 of the ingredients for the filling) and bring to boil under low heat to dissolve the sugar. DO NOT stir. Stirring not required. Off heat and let the sugar solution cool completely.

3) 1220hr - Pre-heated oven at 200c for 10 minutes. Bring out dough from fridge and divide dough into 6 equal portions. Roll each divided dough into a ball and place it in the centre of the tart tin and press dough into tin, working around using the thumb. Use a fork to make holes in the dough.

4) 1230hr - bake tart shells at pre-heated oven at 200c for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Combine sugar solution (prep in step 2), egg and evaporated milk. Run mixture through a sieve and set aside.

5) 1235hr - Pour filling from (4) into the baked tart shells and continue to bake at 200c for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 180c during the last 2-3 minutes when the custard puffs up.

6) 1250hr - Let egg tarts cool in rack before removing them from the tart tins. I was not gentle with it. I just invert the tart tin and hit it against a plate from a 2-inch height and it comes out easily, haha... :P

Enjoy!

Click here for a step-by-step tutorial.

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