Portuguese Egg Tarts

Last Saturday, after my routine grocery shopping and breakfast, I decided to do some simple pastries. I just had the urge to do puff pastries. Even though I'm not very good at puff pastries, I enjoyed the tedious steps involved. And, I like puff pastries, even though I know how unhealthy it is!


So, for that morning, I decided to embark on Alex Goh's Portuguese Egg Tarts. Aloysius has been a great fan of egg tarts. Whenever my dad picks him up from school, he will buy a packet of five Crystal Jade egg tarts for Aloysius. Both of them like their HK egg tarts very much. Each egg tart cost about $1.30. But it's really nice. So to satisfied their palate, I decided to bake the Portuguese style, to make them stop eating from outside! *grin proudly*


The egg tarts really turned out very well! The egg custard was really soft, and not too sweet. Even though some of the tops were browned, it doesn't has the charred taste. The puff pastries crust was really crispy. This is definitely a keeper!
Recipe for Portuguese Egg Tarts, extracted from "Irresistible Pastry by Alex Goh".
Makes 24 regular egg tarts (regular muffin tray)
Puff Pastry


Ingredients:
(A)
400g Plain flour
50g Unsalted butter
1/8 tsp Fine salt
220g Water
(B)
300g Pastry margarine (I used only 250g)


Method:

  1. Mix (A) to form a smooth dough. Let it rest for 15mins.
  2. Roll out the dough into cross shape with the centre thicker and the four limbs thinner.
  3. Place the pastry margarine onto the centre of the dough. Wrap it up.
  4. Roll out the dough into a 10mm thickness and fold once. Let it rest for 15mins. (I skipped the resting part as I missed it when reading the instructions. It worked fine for me too.)
  5. Turn the dough 90 degrees. Repeat step (4), four more times.
  6. Roll out the dough into 3-mm thick. Cut the sheet into half.
  7. For one of the half, roll it up like swiss roll. Chill till firm.
  8. For the other half, fold them like an envelope and refrigerate for future use.
Egg Fillings
(Makes enough for half of the puff pastry above only.)

Ingredients:
100g Whipping cream
150g Whole milk
40g Fine sugar
1 Egg yolk
3 Whole eggs
1/4 Vanilla extract

Method:
  1. Cook whipping cream and milk until 70C. (Feel it with your fingers. If it feels hot to the touch, it's probably about 70C. Do not boil.)
  2. Stir in sugar and cook until the sugar dissolves.
  3. Add it to into the beaten eggs and egg yolks.
  4. Mix until well blended.
  5. Lastly add in the vanilla extract. Set aside to cool completely.
  6. Divide the puff pastry into 24 portions. Flatten the pastry and roll it into about 3-mm thick. Press onto the tart moulds.
  7. Pour the fillings into the pastry tarts from step (5). (The fillings I made was barely enough to fill up 24 crusts, with only two tbsp per crusts, and not more! The eggs I used were small size.) 
  8. Then bake at 200C for 20 mins on the centre rack. (You may place it at the lower rack. However, if there are no caramelised dots on the egg custard, move the baking tray upwards to let the tart surface take up more heat to create the caramelized dots. I baked mine on the top 2nd rack and it caramelised the whole custard!)

23 comments:

Precious Moments said...
July 1, 2011 at 9:24 AM

my girl and i LOVE egg tarts. I was thinking about Shirley's and now I saw yours! mmmm... def going to keep me busy soon.

passionbaker said...
July 1, 2011 at 9:30 AM

Yeah, me too! I was drooling over Shirley's egg tarts too! I would definitely want to attempt that too!

jasminelim said...
July 1, 2011 at 11:40 AM

i LOVE PUFF PASTRY TOO! layers and layers of flaky pastry! with the smooth custard, YUMMY! (: i want to eat this! ;D

passionbaker said...
July 1, 2011 at 1:10 PM

Me too Jasmine! That's why you must make this and indulge!

Honeybeesweets said...
July 1, 2011 at 4:57 PM

Oh goodie! Will try this put. thanks for the recipe Jane!

Anncoo said...
July 4, 2011 at 12:32 AM

Mmm... looks so yummy and egg tart is my favorite too! I still have a packet of frozen puff pastry in my freezer, will use it for the egg tarts :)

Kokken69 said...
July 4, 2011 at 8:21 AM

I have the same book by Alex Goh and have wanted to attempt this... But in the end I tried the flaky version :) I will try this next time... Too much egg tarts for now :)

passionbaker said...
July 4, 2011 at 9:42 PM

HBS,
You'll have to try this! You'll definitely like it!

passionbaker said...
July 4, 2011 at 9:44 PM

Thanks Anncoo. Good idea to use puff pastry. Save a lot of time on rolling them out! :p

passionbaker said...
July 4, 2011 at 9:46 PM

Shirley,
You really made a lot of egg tarts these few days. Time to let it rest for now. I really want to attempt your HK style egg tarts. Looked so perfect!

KL said...
July 5, 2011 at 1:10 AM

Wow! This looks really yummy! This is going into my to-bake list!

laureen lim said...
July 5, 2011 at 1:17 PM

They look so incredibly soft and flaky, Jane- I would take one over Crystal Jade's any day!

Weishi26 said...
July 5, 2011 at 10:43 PM

hi there, i just started baking recently... so there are lots of basic things that i am unsure of. .. just like to ask u about step 3 of making the pastry.. "Place the pastry margarine onto the centre of the dough. Wrap it up", u meant that u put the 250g of margarine all at once? or in 4 batches

passionbaker said...
July 6, 2011 at 8:11 AM

Thanks KL!

passionbaker said...
July 6, 2011 at 8:13 AM

Thanks Laureen. Oh, Crytal Jade's definitely taste better than mine! :p

passionbaker said...
July 6, 2011 at 8:15 AM

Hi Weishi26,,
Yes, place the whole slap of the pastry margarine in the centre, then wrap up with the dough. You may use 300g, depends on how you cut it. But not lesser than 250g though. Hope this helps.

jo said...
July 6, 2011 at 10:55 PM

Hi Jane, the tarts look really good. Haha seems like a few bloggers are baking egg tarts right now. Am so inspired to bake some as well just by seeing yours.

Always said...
December 20, 2012 at 2:23 AM

May I know where u buy the pastry margarine? It is very hard to find it nowadays.
Thanks.

Passionate About Baking said...
December 20, 2012 at 8:23 AM

Hi Always,
If you reside in Singapore, you can buy it from Phoon Huat. Hope this helps.

Unknown said...
May 26, 2013 at 11:44 AM

Hi there,ur tarts make me saliva+ING !!!!
God..it is sinful for not trying to make such heavenly-taste dessert..I'm gonna make it at least once in my life^^

From the instructions,
You fold the dough when turning it every 90 degree,is it mean that the folded tracks will be both horizontal and vertical which may intersect with each other? or I interpret wrongly? Thank you!^^

Passionate About Baking said...
May 27, 2013 at 8:44 AM

Hi Wog wys,
Turning it 90 degrees means, the folds if it's horizontal, becomes vertical now. Then as you roll and fold, the same thing happends, horizontal will become vertical. They don't intersect. In another words, your top right corner after turning 90degrees becomes your bottom right corner. Hope this clarifies.

Unknown said...
March 15, 2017 at 6:42 AM

Hi,

I was drooling when I came across this recipe by chance. Would like to give it a go this weekend. Would like to check do I put the dough in the fridge or just leave it outside while letting it to rest for 15 mins. Thank you!

Shirley

Passionate About Baking said...
March 15, 2017 at 7:55 AM

Hi Shirley,
You may put it in the fridge so that it'll be easier to roll without breaking. Good luck with your egg tarts!

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