My husband and I travelled to Asia last fall and while we were visiting Hong Kong, we had to visit Macau since my mom was raised on this wonderful little peninsula. While we were there, we had the most AMAZING Portuguese Egg Tarts from a street vendor. The crust was flakey and buttery and the custard was smooth and warm. I never had an egg tart I loved so much.
Since returning to Vancouver, I have yet to find a Portuguese Egg Tart that can be compared to the one we had in Macau. With summer vacation upon us, I thought I would try to find a recipe for these wonderful egg tarts and see if I can duplicate the egg tarts we had in Macau.
I'm not exactly sure what is the difference between a Chinese egg tart and a Portuguese egg tart. From my experience, the Portuguese tart has a much more flakier crust, the custard is milky and smooth, and the tops of the tarts have the creme brulee look.
Servings: about 20 to 30 tarts (depends on the depth of your tart shells/muffin cups)
Preheat oven: 420 degrees F
*The measurements are a bit odd since I had to convert the measurements from its original recipe.
What you'll need:
1 pkg of puff pastry (I used Tenderflake - 397g)
200 ml of whipping cream
291 ml of milk
6.5 Tbsp of sugar
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1/4 tsp of vanilla extract
Working with the dough:
Pastry dough, I find, is tempermental. They like to be chilled before hitting the hot heat of the oven.
1. Roll out the pastry dough into a flat rectangular shape, about 3mm thick. Then roll the sheet up, like a swiss roll. Chill the log(s) until firm to touch.
2. Divide the log into equal portions, one for each cup, approximately 24 tarts. (I divided mine up into 20 tarts since I only had 20 tart moulds.
3. Flatten the pastry with the palm of your hand and begin rolling it until it's about 3mm thick. Try to maintain its round shape. I found that it's most ideal if the dough is rolled to as think as possible.
4. Press the flatten round pastry into the tart mould. They are now ready to be filled with it's creamy goodness!
The filling:
1. Cook whipping cream and milk until it reaches the temperature of 70 degress C. I used a candy thermometre for this.
2. Stil in sugar and cook until all the sugar DISSOLVES.
3. Beat eggs and egg yolk.
4. To avoid making 'scrambled eggs', it's VERY IMPORTANT to temperate the eggs and the sugar/milk mixture. To do this, slowly add just a bit of the sugar/milk mixture to the eggs while mixing. Continue to do this until it is well blended.
5. Add the vanilla extract. Set aside and cool.
Putting it all together:
1. Pour the filling into the pastry tarts. Only fill the tart half way.
2. Bake the tarts for 20-25 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the top of the tart has that 'creme brulee' look to it.
3. Let them rest for a bit and then take them out of the tart mould/muffin pan and have them cool on a rack.
4. Enjoy them while they are warm!
A cook's tip: Do not store them in a container, the crust will loose its crispness. Just place them on the counter or on a cookie sheet. Pop them into the toaster to warm up the custard if they are no longer warm.
**Since my tart moulds were not very deep, I was able to make 40 tarts with the full filling recipe.**
I had a blast watching these little babies grow inside the oven. I was stuck to the oven window for the entire 25 minutes of baking time! Don't worry if they look like they will explode, the filling will eventually come back down once cooled off!
