Egg Tarts 蛋撻
Egg tart, the perennial favourite dimsum sweet, is probably one of the most famous fusion dishes to emanate from the Hong Kong dimsum restaurants. The name ‘egg tart’, ‘dan ta 蛋塔’ in Chinese mandarin, or 'daan taat 蛋撻' in Cantonese, originated from ‘custard tart’. As there is no singular word for ‘custard’ or ‘tart’ in the Chinese language, and since custard is made from egg, so custard becomes ‘dan’ which is egg in Chinese, and ‘ta’ is just a direct phonetic sound of the word ‘tart’. Thus ‘dan ta’/'daan taat' becomes the name in Chinese and, to translate it back to English, and isn’t it a wonderful roundabout way of naming a dish, it becomes ‘egg tart’!
Apparently, egg tarts originated during the 1940s when some dimsum restaurants in Hong Kong started to introduce western styled snacks to add to their usual repertoire of morning session dimsum dishes. They were most probably adapted from the English or Portuguese styled custard tarts, and until the 1960s, they were apparently twice as big as today’s mini dimsum version. Through the years of adaptation however, they have slowly become smaller in size to suit the dimsum style and I guess during these times, Chinese technique of making the pastry has also sneaked in as well.
I first learned to make egg tarts about three or four years ago, using a recipe from a cookbook called ‘珍饈百味’ by 譚國梅, which was passed to me from my mother. Since then, I have made them on and off quite a number of times, and have also made quite a few changes to the original recipe by adapting from other recipes as well. So it has slowly evolved to become my own version of this yummy sweet.
Makes approx. 12 dimsum-sized tarts.
[Ingredients]
Pastry:
Water Dough:
80g plain flour
5g (2 teaspoons) custard powder
5g (2 teaspoons) milk powder
pinch (1/8 teaspoon) salt
1 egg yolk
10g ghee
12g (1 tablespoon) icing sugar
40ml (approx.) water, adjust as necessary
Short Dough:
100g plain flour
100g ghee
Filling:
Sugar Syrup:
150g white sugar
200ml water
Custard:
2 eggs
50ml evaporated milk
150ml Sugar Syrup
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
1. For the custard filling: Make the Sugar Syrup and cool, this amount will be more than you need. Then use 150ml of this Sugar Syrup and mix with eggs and evaporated milk, taking care not to beat bubbles into the eggs. Sieve this custard mixture and set aside.
2. For the pastry: Mix the Water Dough, adding water gradually until a soft, but not sticky, dough formed. Cover with cling-film and chill in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes before using. Mix the Short Dough, it will be sticky, then cover with cling-film and chill in the refrigerator to harden slightly.
3. For the egg tart shells: Proceed to make the Chinese styled puff pastry as shown in the step-by-step making of the Spiral Pastry in Spiral Apple Pies, but stop when you are up to step #14. Using a rolling pin, roll out the pastry into a rectangle of approximately 30cm x 35cm. Use a 8.8cm round plain or fluted cutter to cut out 12 circles.
4. Preheat oven to 240°C (or to as high as your oven could go). Put 12 ungreased fluted egg tart moulds (top 6cm diameter, base 4cm diameter) onto a baking sheet. Line each mould with a pastry circle and fill up to 80% full with the custard filling.
5. Put the egg tarts into the oven and immediately turn the oven temperature down to 200°C. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn the oven temperature down to 180°C and bake a further 10 minutes, or until done.
[Tip]
I use ghee to make the pastry as it has the buttery property as well as providing a flaky texture similar to using lard. But if you cannot find ghee, use lard or shortening to substitute it.
[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.
Apparently, egg tarts originated during the 1940s when some dimsum restaurants in Hong Kong started to introduce western styled snacks to add to their usual repertoire of morning session dimsum dishes. They were most probably adapted from the English or Portuguese styled custard tarts, and until the 1960s, they were apparently twice as big as today’s mini dimsum version. Through the years of adaptation however, they have slowly become smaller in size to suit the dimsum style and I guess during these times, Chinese technique of making the pastry has also sneaked in as well.
I first learned to make egg tarts about three or four years ago, using a recipe from a cookbook called ‘珍饈百味’ by 譚國梅, which was passed to me from my mother. Since then, I have made them on and off quite a number of times, and have also made quite a few changes to the original recipe by adapting from other recipes as well. So it has slowly evolved to become my own version of this yummy sweet.
Makes approx. 12 dimsum-sized tarts.
[Ingredients]
Pastry:
Water Dough:
80g plain flour
5g (2 teaspoons) custard powder
5g (2 teaspoons) milk powder
pinch (1/8 teaspoon) salt
1 egg yolk
10g ghee
12g (1 tablespoon) icing sugar
40ml (approx.) water, adjust as necessary
Short Dough:
100g plain flour
100g ghee
Filling:
Sugar Syrup:
150g white sugar
200ml water
Custard:
2 eggs
50ml evaporated milk
150ml Sugar Syrup
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
1. For the custard filling: Make the Sugar Syrup and cool, this amount will be more than you need. Then use 150ml of this Sugar Syrup and mix with eggs and evaporated milk, taking care not to beat bubbles into the eggs. Sieve this custard mixture and set aside.
2. For the pastry: Mix the Water Dough, adding water gradually until a soft, but not sticky, dough formed. Cover with cling-film and chill in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes before using. Mix the Short Dough, it will be sticky, then cover with cling-film and chill in the refrigerator to harden slightly.
3. For the egg tart shells: Proceed to make the Chinese styled puff pastry as shown in the step-by-step making of the Spiral Pastry in Spiral Apple Pies, but stop when you are up to step #14. Using a rolling pin, roll out the pastry into a rectangle of approximately 30cm x 35cm. Use a 8.8cm round plain or fluted cutter to cut out 12 circles.
4. Preheat oven to 240°C (or to as high as your oven could go). Put 12 ungreased fluted egg tart moulds (top 6cm diameter, base 4cm diameter) onto a baking sheet. Line each mould with a pastry circle and fill up to 80% full with the custard filling.
5. Put the egg tarts into the oven and immediately turn the oven temperature down to 200°C. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn the oven temperature down to 180°C and bake a further 10 minutes, or until done.
[Tip]
I use ghee to make the pastry as it has the buttery property as well as providing a flaky texture similar to using lard. But if you cannot find ghee, use lard or shortening to substitute it.
[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.
Labels: Asian Pastries, Teatime Treats
posted by SeaDragon @ 27.4.05
10 Comments:
Hello, your egg tarts look so lovely. I was disappointed with my pastry as it was so hard. Thank you for your recipe. Lynda :)
Hi Lynda,
You're welcome and thank you. This takes a fair bit of work to make but worth it. To tell you the truth, :p I am still not too satisfied with the appearance, the top of the tarts are very uneven - still trying to figure out how to make them 'even' like those in the dimsum restaurants... :)
Hi there. I thought of getting a bit more adventurous this weekend by trying out your egg tart but can you explain how to "Press down the dough in a crisscross fashion" in step 5?
Thanks. - natasya
natasya,
Refer to the photo.
It is just using your rolling pin and flatten the dough down, or pressing down the dough, this way the dough will flatten as a rectangle. If you just roll out the dough, it might turn into irregular shape if you are not skillful enough in rolling out the dough.
Hi. Was directed here by Mrs HBT of Hipfood. Thanks for your pastry recipes - the short crust one is quite high-caloried, ya? ^_^ I have on my blogsite a picture of an eggtart I made which you might smile at.
Hey.
i dunno why. but for the short dough, which requires 100g ghee and 100g flour.
i cant seem to get it to become a dough. no matter how long i put them in the fridge. its always in a buttery form..
and when i mix it with the water dough, its like wrapping a cream inside a dough... everything spills out..
help...
Celestial,
Are you in tropical countries? Is the ghee liquid at room temperature?
If you are, I would suggest you chill the ghee until hard, then rub into the flour as quickly as you can to prevent the ghee from melting in the hot weather.
The other option is to reduce the ghee quantity: try 70g ghee to 130g flour. This will alter the end texture slightly, but will solve your problem.
SeaDragon,
Yes i am from Singapore!
Thanks alot for your prompt reply.
Will try it next time.
Although the rolling out of the dough part was very messy and demoralising, the egg tarts turn out to be quite nice! Although the layers were nt tat obvious cause of the melted ghee.
But i love the taste of the layered tarts.
Thanks :)
was searching for thousand layer egg tart & found your recipe...
I guess your mixture of your egg custard filling might be causing the problem of the outcome... probably you can try mine?
http://look-see-eat.blogspot.com/2011/03/baking-exploration-iii-egg-tarts.html
would be trying out your pastry soon! I quote it as Level 2... ^^
Thanks for sharing, will check it out.
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