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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- 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
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 30 g evaporated milk , around 2 tablespoons
- Dash of vanilla extract , optional
- 90 g cake flour , 160ml
- 50 g unsalted butter , soften in room temperature
- 25 g icing sugar , 1/4 cup
- 1 tablespoon of whisked egg
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- Dash of vanilla extract , if you prefer
- melted butter for brushing the moulds
- Flour for dusting and coating
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Melt sugar and salt with hot water. Mix until dissolved and cool down.
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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.
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Strain the filling to get rid of any foam once or twice. Rest aside or in fridge if the room temperature is high.
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In a large bowl, shift flour, sugar and salt. Then add softened butter. Break with hands and mix all the ingredients together.
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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.)
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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.
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Pre-heat the over to 200 degree C (390 degree F).
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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.
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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.
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Cool down for several minutes and then take out from the moulds. Serve when still hot.
Recipe Video
The Nutrition Facts is based on each single egg tart.
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I love the egg tarts but didn’t know how to make it until now.
Will all purpose flour work as well?
Hi Maria,
All purpose flour may work, but cake flour can make the shell as fluffy as possible.
I used all purpose flour since that’s all I had on hand. The crust turned out similar to a sugar cookie. It was very delicious!
Love Hong Kong egg tart but haven’t challenged it at home. Thanks for sharing such a detailed tutorial Elaine!
Thanks Maggie!
hi can I replace evaporated milk with fresh milk? if can, the other ingredients amount will still be the same? thanks so much.
Hi Chris,
Evaporated milk contains less water than fresh milk and thus has a stronger taste. Can you get condensed milk? You can use the same amount of condensed milk and reduce 1 tablespoon of sugar.
Hi, Elaine..
I wanna ask, can i use the same custard recipe for pre-baked tart shell? Do I need to change the baking temperature and reduce the baking time for how long? Thanks =P
Hi Nurul,
Yes, you can use pre-baked tart shell. But I cannot give you an exact answer about the baking temperature and time because I never used pre-baked tart shell.
Tx for sharing this recipe,it is easy and delicious too. My kids and husband love it. I just tried it today and used all purpose flour,turned out good. The only problem I had was that my crust was too brown at the edge. I think 390F is a little bit too high,I baked mine for 13 mins with 390F and lower it to 350F for 2mins. Will try 375F and lower it to 350F next time. Easy to follow recipe and so yummy. Thanks Elaine!!!!!
Thanks Wiwit for the wonderful feedback. I am so glad to know your family love this dessert too. It has been my daughter’s favorite afternoon snack.
Hi, can I use a pre-made pie crust since I can’t find those tart molds?
Sure, we use pre-made crust for homestyle egg tarts in most cases for convenience.
I tried it! Really tasty!!!! Thank u very much for the recipe!!!
You are the most welcome, Stephanie. It is one of our favorite dessert too and quite easy to prepare. Happy cooking!
Great recipe!May i know the diameter of your Egg Tart Mold?thanks
Thank you Elaine for this recipe! I substituted all purpose flour for cake flour, and added a dash of nutmeg (my mom always puts cinnamon or nutmeg in egg custards). I also don’t have tart molds, so I used a muffin pan, and had just enough filling leftover to soak a slice of bread in it to make a piece of French toast while the tarts baked. I will definitely be making these again. Your site is one of my favorite recipe sites. Everything I’ve made so far has turned out delicious. Wishing you and your loved ones a Happy New Year ❤️