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.
I am so excited about this recipe. Because these tarts are Chinese, I thought they would be hard to make… I am happy to see that they only require regular ingredients and your video tutorial makes it very easy. Thank you for such a great recipe! -Kim
Thanks Kim. You really need to try this. It is simple with really excellent flavor.
When you are baking the egg tarts when do you lower the gas mark on how many degrees feel a bit confused please thanks?
Hi Farhana,
You can low the temperature for around 10 degree around 13 minutes. This is just to avoid the tarts rising up too high and collapse after cooling down.
Hi Elaine,
This recipes looks wonderful, and something that can easily be made by novice bakers.
But I can’t seem to find any of those tart shell tins (metal or aluminum). That size doesn’t seem to be available where I live. Where did you buy yours from ?
Thanks
Miko
Hi Miko,
I found those tools in a bakery tool store. But I am based in China where those shell tins are quite popular. If you cannot find some,you can make some one time shell with silver paper.
Did it today.. It was soo tasty.. I didn’t use the dough you were recommend but instead shortcrust pastry and it turns out really well..
Thanks for sharing this recipe.. I have been craving for this..
Hi Queenie,
Thanks so much for the feedback. I am quite glad that you love this as it has been one of my comforting dessert now.
Keep up the good work! Always love your recipes and the effort. Thank you!
Thank you!
This is one of my favourite foods in HK. Thank you for sharing. 🙂
I just tried this recipe and it came out nice. It tastes delicious and my sisters loved it too. I’m so excited to let my mom taste it.
Hi Dizel,
Thanks for your kind feedback. This easier version of HK egg tart is one my top 10 list for social gathering. Hope your mom will like it too. Happy cooking ahead.
What is the name of the first reggea song, please?
Btw the cookies looks wonderful!
Hi Dragan,
Thank you for the kind words. The first song is dub spirit from Youtube Audio Library.
Egg tarts are delicious. Thank you for this great recipe, Elaine.
Hi! I’ve tried this recipe several times, and it tastes great! However, the bottom crust always caves upward when the tarts come out of the oven. Is it because I use cupcake pans? I love the taste, I just hope I can make them look pretty, too!
Hi there,
If this happens several times, my suggestion is to slightly lower the baking temperature in the last 5 minutes. Can you send me a photo via Facebook or instagram with tag #ElaineCSF?
Hi, do you have a nutrition grid?
can you show me?lol