Egg Tarts (Hong Kong Style) Recipe

Recipe from Christine's Recipe

Prep time: 40 mins

Cook time: 15 mins 

Yield: Makes about 14-16 egg tarts 

Preheat oven to 200C. Position rack in lower third of oven. 

Ingredients of crust:

• 125 gm butter
• 55 gm icing sugar (Reduce to 45gm if you dont like sweet crust)
• 225 gm all purpose flour
• 1 egg, whisk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method (making crust):

1. Place butter at room temperature until softened. Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer over medium speed until the mixture is smooth, fluffy and light in color.
2. Add in whisked egg, half at a time, beat over low speed. Add vanilla extract, mix well.
3. Sift in flour in two batches, scraping down the sides of the bowl between additions with a spatula, and make sure all ingredients combine well. Knead into dough.
4. Weigh the dough and divide it to 12 - 16 batches. (Depends on how many tart shells you have)
5. 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. 
6. Set aside.

Ingredients of custard:
(For 13 batches)

• 265 gm hot full cream milk*
• 100 gm caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 75 gm cold/warm full cream milk*
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

*You can substitute full cream milk with 265gm water and 75gm evaporated milk.

Method (making custard):

1. Add sugar into hot milk, mix until completely dissolved.
2. Whisk egg with cold/warm milk. Pour in sugar water. Mix well.
3. Sift egg mixture to get rid of any foam. Carefully pour egg mixture into each tart shells.

Method (baking tarts):

1. Bake tarts for 10 to 15 minutes until the edges are lightly brown.
2. Lower the heat to 200C. Keep an eye on them. Once you see the custard being puffed up a bit, pull the oven door open about 2 to 3 inches. Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes until the custard is cooked through. Just insert a toothpick into the custard. If it stands on its own, it’s done.

Notes：

• Placing tarts at the lower rack in oven could cook crusts easily before the egg custard being heated up too quickly. (My oven will automatically turn on the heater at the bottom when it turns to “bake mode”. It’s better to check the menu of your own oven and know how your oven is designed.)
• At the very last stage, pull the oven door open a few inches. This method is to avoid custard from being puffed up too high. The custard would collapse once they are cooled down otherwise.