My Favorite Egg Tarts

My family likes egg tarts very much but I find those store-bought tarts are too sweet for me. Hence, when I found this Cantonese egg tart recipe about a year ago, I tried it out at home and Voilà! It has become my one and only egg tart recipe that I’ve been using since.

The egg tarts tasted as good as those I used to buy from the famous bakery chain here but they are less sweet, as I can control the amount of sugar that goes into the egg custard. For a healthier version, I usually used low-fat milk and I have also tried it with soya milk for some of my office colleagues who do not take milk or milk product.

Here is the recipe which I’ve adapted from Christine Recipes  

Egg Tarts Recipe

Ingredients:

 

For the tart shells:

• 225g all purpose flour
• 125g unsalted butter, soften at room temperature
• 40g icing sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

For the egg custard:

• 3 eggs
• 90g caster sugar
• 225g hot water
• 85g low fat milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Making the tart shells:

1. Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer over medium speed until the mixture is fluffy and light in color.
2. Add in whisked egg in 2 batches, beat over low speed. Add vanilla extract, mix well.
3. Sift in flour in 2 batches, and mix for all ingredients to combine well. Hold the mixture together to form into dough.
4. Pinch small ball of dough about the size of a ping pong ball and press it onto the egg tart mould with your thumbs, starting from the bottom then up to the sides to make tart shell with even layer of dough. Trim away any excess dough. Repeat the same until you used up the dough. About 10-12 tart shells. Place it in the fridge until the egg custard filling are ready.

Making the egg custard:

1. Dissolve sugar with the hot water.
2. Whisk egg with the milk. Add in the sugar water. Mix well.
3. Sift the egg custard mixture to get rid of any foam into a pouring cup. Took out the tart shells from the fridge and carefully pour egg custard mixture into each tart shell.

Baking the egg tarts:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Position rack in 2^nd level from the bottom of the oven.
2. Bake tarts for 10 to 15 minutes until the edges are lightly brown.
3. Lower the heat to 170 degree C and monitor the tarts closely. Once the custard start to puff up, pull the oven door open about 2 to 3 inches (I used a metal spoon as a stopper to prepare the oven door from closing back.
4. Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes until the custard is cooked through i.e. when a toothpick inserted into the centre of custard stand up straight. (I like to over-baked it a little bit till some part of the custart is browned).