Egg Tarts

I like egg tarts- Hong Kong style egg tarts with the shortcrust pastry or Portuguese egg tarts with the puff pastry. I love the crust to be crispy & the egg custard to be soft. I've been wanting to try baking some egg tarts at home. However, Jerome doesn't like egg tarts. This means that if I'm going to bake them, I'm going to be the one eating up all of them. So I took the opportunity to try baking them when my friends came for a visit last Saturday. I have found a recipe from Allrecipes.com and had been wanting to put it to the test. But the recipe has called for 9 eggs to be used for the egg custards! That's a lot of eggs! Imagine half an egg in 1 tart...

Fortunately, as I was snooping around in Aunty Yochana's Blog , I chanced upon an egg tart recipe. Looking at the positive comments by others who had tried the recipe, I decided to use her egg tart recipe instead. I made some adaptations & mistakes along the way. Her recipe has called for an egg yolk & half an egg white. I decided to use the entire egg as I know I'll probably end up throwing the remaining egg white away.

In my prior experience of preparing shortcrust pastry, I have been cutting in the butter into the dry ingredients before adding in the egg. So I happily did just that only to realised that the recipe has required beating up the butter & sugar before adding the eggs, while the flour is last. So I made a mistake at the very first step. I kept my fingers crossed & hoped that it would still work & fortunately it did! :) Next time, I must remember to read the recipe carefully before starting.

I also had to extend the baking time for the egg custards that took a long time to be done. It had to be baked till it's no longer wobbly. So instead of 15 minutes, I baked them for 30 minutes.

Hong Hong Style Baked Egg Tarts

Taste Verdict: I think it's quite yummy but it's a little on the sweeter side for both the crust & the egg custards. I'll cut down the sugar next time.
Jerome : It's very nice, but I still don't like egg tarts. (Sigh..., the recipe didn't change his preference)
My friend's 4-year old son gobbled down 3 egg tarts. So I guess the egg tarts have found their fan.

Adapted Egg Tart Recipe
(makes 20 egg tarts)

For the tart pastry:

Ingredients:
120g butter, chilled
50g icing sugar
1 egg, beaten
200g all purpose flour, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
1) Beat butter & icing sugar till well mixed.
2) Add egg & vanilla essence & mix well.
3) Add flour & mix into a dough.
4) Cover it in a bowl & let it rest in the fridge for 10 minutes.
5) Form small dough balls & roll flat on a floured surface & press into tart moulds or aluminium tart trays.
6) Bake tart shells for 10 minutes at 180 degrees celcius. (Tart shells will be half-aked.)

For the Egg Custard:

Ingredients:
280g milk
140g sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
1) Heat sugar & milk in a saucepan. Remove from heat once the sugar dissolves.
2) Whisk eggs slightly (not till frothy) & pour into the milk mixture.
3) Stir in the vanilla essence.
4) Strain the egg custard & pour into the tart shells.
5) Bake at the lower shelf at 180 degrees celcius for 30 minutes or till the custards firm up.
(The custard should not be wobbly when you shake it.)