Detailed Hong Kong style egg tart recipe (港式蛋挞) with an easy shell and creamy filling.
One year after moving to Guangdong province, I began to love Cantonese cuisine especially dim sum dishes and Hong Kong style cookie and desserts. There are many small stores providing various cookies, egg tarts and soft Asian buns just over the street corner. The smell was so appealing to me so I indulged a lot. Then after another year, I began to look inside of Cantonese cuisine, trying various dishes at home and understanding the basic principles of making Cantonese dishes. From that time on, I make my own egg tart, custard buns, char siu buns and so many other dim sum dishes at home. Honestly, Cantonese dishes are very different from my familiar Sichuan cuisine, usually require higher kitchen skills and always respect the nature of the ingredients. That’s the reason why I am deeply attracted.
I would highly suggest making the custard filling firstly, as the longer the filling rests, the better flavor you will get.
There are two famous types of egg tart here in my country—one is Hong Kong style and the other one is Macao version also known as Portuguese Egg Tart. As Hong Kong style egg tart, there are two kinds of tart shells-one is puffy pastry similar to shell of Portuguese egg tart and the other one is short crust pastry, taste like a butter cookie. Elaine is introducing the later one—short crust pastry, as it is more practicable at home.
There are two ways for assembling the shells to the moulds. One is pressing with fingers directly and the other is rolling out with a pin and cut the wrapper with a mould. Personally, I prefer the first method because it is much quicker and there is not need to worry about breaking the shells. If you use the first method too, please try to make the shell uniform in thickness and avoid thick bottoms otherwise, egg tart shells might be broken when moving from the moulds.
For making 8 egg tarts with regular egg tart; I do not use vanilla extract in this recipe but you can definitely add some if your prefer. I highly recommend measuring all the ingredients for the best result. I measured the ingredients and references are given in the following recipe.
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Egg Tart Recipe—Hong Kong Style
Ingredients
For custard filling
- 2 middle size eggs , whisked (include 1 tablespoon for pastry dough)
- 90 ml hot water
- 35 g sugar , around 2 tablespoons +1 teaspoon for castor sugar You can adjust slightly
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 30 g evaporated milk , around 2 tablespoons
- Dash of vanilla extract , optional
For the pastry dough
- 90 g cake flour , 160ml
- 50 g unsalted butter , soften in room temperature
- 25 g icing sugar , ¼ cup
- 1 tablespoon of whisked egg
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- Dash of vanilla extract , if you prefer
Others
- melted butter for brushing the moulds
- Flour for dusting and coating
Instructions
Make custard filling
- Melt sugar and salt with hot water. Mix until dissolved and cool down.
- Whisk eggs and then take around 1 tablespoon out for the pastry dough. Stir in sugar water and also evaporated milk(vanilla extract here too). Give a big stir and combine everything well.
- Strain the filling to get rid of any foam once or twice. Rest aside or in fridge if the room temperature is high.
Making the pastry
- In a large bowl, shift flour, sugar and salt. Then add softened butter. Break with hands and mix all the ingredients together.
- Add around 1 tablespoon of whisked egg (vanilla extract here too) and until knead until smooth. If the dough is too sticky, coat your hand with some flour will help. Cover with plastic wrapper and then fridge for 30 minutes (or longer time for the dough to become stiff so we can continue the assembling process.)
- Take the dough out and divide into 8 equal portions. Make on portion into a round ball and slightly press down. And I would strongly suggest brushing some melt butter on the surface of the moulds so we can move them out easily. Press the shell into the moulds with your fingers. Try to make the wrapper uniform in thickness and avoid a thick bottom. Repeat to finish all.
Baking the egg tart.
- Pre-heat the over to 200 degree C (390 degree F).
- Pour the custard filling to the shells around 80% full. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the surface becomes golden brown and a toothpick can stand in the egg tart.
- Another tip is to shake the egg tart slightly, transfer out when the surface is not moving any more. In last minutes, please slightly lower your fire to avoid the custard filling rising too high. Otherwise egg tart will collapse after cooling down.
- Cool down for several minutes and then take out from the moulds. Serve when still hot.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Mmm
Thanks! Looks delicious.