Egg Tarts

Saturday, April 10, 2010

About the only decadent dessert in the Chinese cuisine. Sure there's the other fried stuff, but this was my choice for a nice close to a great meal. Yeah... it'll take some time, but it's so worth it.



Crust:
4 cups plain flour
2 sticks butter
1-1/2 cup icing sugar
2 eggs, whisked
1 tsp vanilla extract

Custard:
6 eggs
2 cups caster sugar
2 cups hot water
1 cup evaporated milk (can't subst w/ whole milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Crust:
1. Place butter at room temperature until softened.
2. Sift flour and icing sugar together.
2. Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer over medium speed until the mixture is smooth, fluffy and light in color.
3. Add in whisked egg, half at a time, beat over low speed.
4. Add vanilla extract, mix well.
5. Add the flour in batches, folding in to the dough.
6. Knead lightly, adding a sprinking of flour if necessary.
7a. Roll out the dough to a 1/2 cm thickness. Cut dough with a cookie cutter that is just a bit smaller than your tart tin in size.
7b. Alternately, I shaped dough into balls, pressed into a circle, and used a muffin pan. Although I found out I had to line the muffin pan with paper cases before filling it with dough. So sticky! Even after greasing.
8. 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. Press down or trim away any excess dough.
9. Refrigerate while making custard.

Custard:
10. Dissolve sugar in hot water.
11. Whisk egg with evaporated milk.
12. Pour in sugar water and vanilla extract into egg mixture.
13. Mix well, taking care to remove any lumps.
14. Carefully pour or spoon egg mixture into each tart shell.

Baking:
15. Preheat oven to 375F.
16. Bake tarts for 20 minutes until the edges are lightly brown or custard starts bubbling.
17. Lower the heat to 350F. Keep an eye on them. Once you see the custard being puffed up a bit, pull the oven door open for a few seconds to release some heat.
18. Bake for another 20 minutes until the custard is cooked through.
19. Turn oven off and leave custards in for another 20 minutes.
20. Just insert a toothpick into the custard. If it stands on its own, it’s done.




You Might Also Like

0 comments