Project: Egg Tart

I wanted to get away from pies for at least a week. They're definitely challenging to make but I wanted to do something different. I woke up on Thursday craving egg tarts but I had to wait until Sunday.

Egg tarts are a staple to Dim Sum much like shrimp dumplings. For those of you who don't know, Dim Sum is Chinese food but in small individual portions. In some restaurants, they're served warm on carts where the seated customers would order what they see. But the one thing that every customer understands is that you can't complete a meal until you have that sweet, buttery, crispy egg tart. Kids love it. Adults crave it.

First Batch

In case you were wondering why I didn't make a dozen egg tarts, it's because I had to buy mini tart tins and they're helluva expensive. I washed the tins right when I got home and after letting them dry, I noticed some rust. My friend Melissa refused to eat "egg tarts made out of rust". I didn't think it would be a big deal since the rust is so small and outside of the tins so we searched online for a third opinion! Based on the Yahoo Q and A, it's pretty much the same story: guys don't give a damn about eating specs of rust where gals are health conscience about it. Luckily, we found out that rust can be removed by rubbing vegetable oil on the tin. The more you know!

I used this recipe for two reasons:
a) the egg tarts looked delicious, and
b) the author is Chinese. Would you follow a Mexican recipe written by an Italian?

I first used my food processor to make the dough like I normally would for a pie crust. Unfortunately, it didn't work out too well. It was too dry that it crumbled when I tried molding it in a tart tin.

A pie crust needs to be kneaded as little as possible so the butter is kept cold throughout the process to ensure its flakiness. This egg tart recipe is more of a cookie type of crust, which means that the dough can be overworked to ensure the dough can be molded. The best way of overworking the dough is to knead it by hand (or possibly by a mixer but I haven't tried it).

Kneaded by hand

So that's what I did with a new batch of dough and it was much easier to work with. The only added liquid in this crust recipe is one egg, so you have to keep kneading until you feel the dough getting really moist. That's because you're trying to draw out water from the butter. Once water is drawn out, the crust will be workable but it won't be flaky when baked. Puff pastry egg tarts can be made using butter, but they are much more difficult and time-consuming to make. You can check it here.

After molding the crust in the tart tins

We first baked it at 200°F for the first 15 minutes only to realize that the recipe said 200°C! Who uses Celsius!? After cranking the oven up to 400°F, we baked it for 10 minutes, then 350°F for the final 10 minutes. The fillings were rising so as instructed by the recipe, we opened the door to 2.5 inches until the egg tarts were done. This is to ensure the egg tarts don't collapse when they come out of the oven.

And to ensure the tarts are done...

...a toothpick is inserted and if it stays upright, it's done.

The finished product was nice and it tasted really good but the crust was as hard as a cookie. Obviously, this is due to overcooking the egg tarts.

You can see the hard crust

The following day, I prepared six egg tarts again with the leftover crust and filling. However, I only baked three of them while the other three were kept in the fridge.

Baked at 400°F for the first 12 minutes and then 350°F for the next 12 minutes

The ones from the second batch were the best egg tarts I've ever had. This time, since they were baked properly, the egg tarts tasted much better with the crust being much softer. The filling was much more tasty flavorful.

I prepared the last three egg tarts in advance to see if the crust would be ruined the following day. I baked the last batch at 400°F for the first 15 minutes and then 350°F for the last 15 and they came out as such.

Baked at 400°F for the first 15 minutes and then 350°F for the next 15 minutes

The crust didn't go soggy so it's clear that egg tarts can be prepared at least a day before. It would just be a hassle to wrap each tart and to make sure the filling doesn't spill.

The egg tarts from this last batch were a little harder but not as hard as the first batch. I still prefer the second batch more.

If I had to make some adjustments to this recipe, I would use a bit less water so the filling is a little more concentrated. Other than that, this was a very good recipe to follow.