Chinese egg tarts

a delicious tart of puff pastry and custard.

China

Dessert
8 persons
265
Mild

Chinese egg tarts are derived from the Portuguese pastel de nata. It goes back to when the Portuguese arrived in Macau in the early 20th century. Considering Hong Kong is very close to Macau, that's how it ended up in Hong Kong. Locals in Hong Kong have adapted the egg tarts and served them with the other dim sum. The Hong Kong egg tarts are slightly different from the Macau egg tarts. With this recipe, you will make the delicious Hong Kong egg tarts. Please note that it is not an easy recipe!

Ingredients

450 g Flour

300 g Butter

6 Eggs

100 ml Ice water

80 ml Milk

165 ml Water

80 g fine sugar

Form egg tarts

Preparation method for Chinese egg tarts

Oil dough

Cut the 300 g of cooled butter into small pieces.
Put the butter and 200 g of flour in an electric food processor. Use the pulse function to mix them until it forms bridges and strands.
Remove it from the electric food processor, scoop out the oil dough with a metal spoon.
Wrap it in cling film, place it in the fridge for 20 minutes or until it hardens.

Water dough

Place the 250 g flour, 1 egg, 0.5 teaspoon salt and 100 ml ice water in the electric food processor.
Mix them until they combine and form a ball.
Wrap it in cling film, place it in the fridge for 20 minutes or until it hardens.

Prepare the pastry

Spread a large piece of cling film on the table top, sprinkle with some regular four.
Flatten the water dough and place another piece of household foil on it.
Roll the water dough to form a large square.
Remove the cling film from the top of the water dough, place the oil dough in the middle and fold the sides of the water dough over the oil dough. Make sure the water dough is completely covered by the oil dough. Flatten it with a rolling pin. (Analogy: Now the dough looks like a sandwich, with the oil dough reflecting the toppings of a sandwich and the water dough reflecting the bread.)
Wrap it in cling film and leave it in the chiller for twenty minutes or until it hardens.
Remove it from the fridge. Flatten it with a rolling pin to about 3 cm thick. Fold both ends of the dough towards the center as if you were closing a book. (Analogy: Now it looks like a multi-layer sandwich.) Place it again in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Repeat the folding process (step 6) three more times.
After the last repetition, place the dough to a thickness of approximately 3 mm. Use a cookie cutter or bowl to cut pieces around dough that are slightly larger than the area of the mold.
Place the sliced dough in a mold. Press the dough lightly on the surface of the mold.
Cut the sides with a fork or a blunt knife.

Filling

Melt 80 g of sugar with 165 ml of water to make a simple syrup. Let it cool.
Beat the 5 eggs for a minute.
Add 80 ml of milk and the cooled down syrup to the egg. Mix this well.
Filter the milk mixture twice to remove impurities.
Fill each empty dough sleeve up to 70%.Baking Bake it at 200 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes and then lower it for another 10 minutes to 180 degrees Celcius. Leave the oven door open for five minutes and remove the egg tarts.