Hong Kong Flaky Egg Tarts

Last week,  I made Hong Kong flaky egg tarts. The tarts are different from the ones I made before as this time, the shells are made using puff pastry instead of the cookie pastry. I used the recipe shared by Meg of Dreamersloft. 

The tarts not only look gorgeous, they are delicious too! I especially love the pastry.... very flaky, buttery & beautifully layered. If you planned to make these, be prepared to be patient as you need to fold the pastry & leave it to rest for a few times. This is especially challenging in a humid condition like Singapore's. One thing for sure, the effort is all worth it!

Thank you Meg for generously sharing this recipe. I've cut & pasted the recipe below, but you still need to go to Meg's blog for the step-by-step picture tutorial.

Hong Kong Flaky Egg Tarts

Recipe yields 8 tarts
4cm base tart casing (measures 6cm from the top)
9cm perforated cookie cutter

Oil Dough:

100g Plain Flour, sifted
160g Unsalted Butter, cubed and keep in chiller until use

Water Dough:

20g Bread Flour, sifted
60g Plain Flour, sifted
5g Custard Powder, sifted
10g Egg
40g Iced Water

Filling:

100g Fresh Milk
50g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
1 drop Vanilla Extract

Method:

1. Make the oil dough. Combine the flour and cold cubed butter in a large bowl. Use pastry cutter to press the butter into the flour until it forms a rough dough. Alternatively, use electric blender and pulse the mixture until rough dough forms. Work quickly so that butter do not melt.
2. Place the dough on a piece of clingwrap and wrap it up into a small rectangle parcel (about 10cm x 15cm). Chill in fridge for 30 mins.
3. Make water dough. Combine all the ingredients into an electric mixer, and blend until a dough forms. Knead for 5 mins until dough is smooth (texture feels like ear-lobe). Mold into a rough oval shape, wrap in clingwrap and chill for 20 mins.
4. Take both water dough and oil dough out from the fridge. Dust the work surface with flour so that the dough will not stick to the work surface. Remove clingwrap (keep it aside). Roll the water dough into a large oval, make sure it has sufficient space allowance for the oil dough to be enclosed within. Place the oil dough in the middle of the water dough.
5. Wrap the water dough like a parcel, encasing the oil dough, make sure no oil dough is exposed at the seams.
6. Slightly flatten/roll the combined dough, dust with some flour top and below and wrap the dough in clingwrap. Chill in the fridge for 20 mins.
7. Retrieve the dough from the fridge. Dust the work surface and rolling pin with flour. Remove clingwrap (set aside), dust top and bottom of dough with flour. Roll the dough into half inch thickness in rectangle shape. Fold one side towards the centre (as shown).
8. Fold the other side towards centre. You will have 3 layers. Dust with flour all around. Wrap in clingwrap and chill in fridge for 20 mins. This is round 1 of folding. (We will do 3x3x4)
9. Repeat step 7.
10. Repeat step 8. This is round 2 of folding.
11. Retrieve the dough from the fridge. Dust the work surface and rolling pin with flour. Make sure to dust a larger surface area. Remove clingwrap (set aside), dust top and bottom of dough with flour. Roll the dough into half inch thickness in rectangle shape. Fold left and right sides towards the centre (as shown).
12. Fold one side of dough towards centre again. You will see 4 layers now. This is round 3 and final round of folding. Dust with flour, clingwrap and chill in fridge for 20 mins.
13. Retrieve dough from fridge. Dust work surface and rolling pin with flour. Place dough on work surface, dust with flour. Roll the dough flat into 0.5cm thickness. Use cookie cutter to stamp the dough into individual tart shells.
14. Wrap tart base using clingwrap (separate each layer) and chill in fridge for 15 mins. *At this point you could freeze the tart base for subsequent use.
15. Retrieve tart base from the fridge. Mold each piece into the tart casing, pressing down the dough towards the sides and bottom of the casing. Avoid touching the top part (perforated) else pattern will not be visible after baking. As you can see, I'm using a larger cookie cutter because I want to create height for the egg tart without having to "push" the base upwards (like some recipes do). Poke some holes in the tart base using a fork gently (not too hard else egg filling will leak). Chill tart base in fridge for 15 mins. Preheat oven at 220 degree celsius.
16. Prepare egg filling. Combine all ingredients of egg filling, make sure sugar is fully dissolved. Sieve the egg filling 2 times. Once tart base is ready, pour the egg filling into each tart to about 70-75%.
17. Place tray of egg tarts at the bottom most rack. Bake at 200 degree celsius for 15 mins. After 15 mins, bake at 180 degree celsius for 10 mins. After 10 mins, slightly open the oven door, slip a cloth or oven mitt by the door and let egg tart bake in residual heat for another 10 mins.
18. After 10 mins, remove the tray from the oven and let egg tarts cool slightly before removing the tarts from the casing.

Recipe by Dreamersloft.