It took me forever to write a blog post. I'm not lazy, nor am I running out of idea. I have plenty waiting for me to write up. But narrating needs the right ambiance, the right feel and the time to do it for a fussy-pot like me.
Dim sum sized egg tarts are always known to be flaky and cute but not when you only have limited moulds. I've only got 6 mini moulds and it took me 2 rounds to finish baking it. In fact, I yield more than the recipe mentioned.
I'm gonna start off by telling you all I've adapted the egg tart recipe from YumYum Magazine and scaled down the recipe to make 12 dim sum sized egg tarts. I love how my natural looking yellow custard turned out to be like below:
The key is to sieve it twice and try not to create any bubbles within the filling.
After chilling the dough for 20mins in the fridge so it is easier to work with.
Wrap dough A with dough B. Dough A is the larger yellowish one. Here, I made slight variation to the original recipe. I once read somewhere that Dough A is formed into a ball and then an 'X' pattern is pressed on it and Dough A is then rolled out to obtain the pattern as above. Dough B should be shaped to roughly form a square.
Pinch to seal each and every corner so that only Dough A is visibly by naked eyes and that Dough B is fully hidden within Dough A.
With the aid of the rolling pin, firmly press down all over the surface of the dough, taking care not to leak any Dough B out from Dough A.
Fold dough 3 times (make 2 folds like an envelope) and pinch to seal and form back into a rough rectangle shape again.
With aid of the rolling pin again, press out the dough to get an even rectangle shape.
Not shown in picture: make another one fold, pinch to seal and press out with rolling pin and that's it!
Chill the dough for 30mins in the fridge and roll out the dough to 1/4 inches thick. Here, I did not bother to chill the dough again for 20mins as Australia weather was pretty cooling on the particular day I was making the egg tarts.
Roughly cut out adequate rounds of dough and press it into tart moulds. Fill up with custard filling bout 80% full and I bake it as below:
Put the egg tarts into the oven and turn the oven temperature down to 200°C. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn the oven temperature down to 180°C and bake a further 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
Serve warm!
Updated : 20 May 2009
Due to overwhelming emails requesting this recipe in my inbox, I suggest why not I put up the recipe here. All I did was cutting down the recipe to make 12mini tarts. The original recipe is still here (it's clickable!)
Here goes the recipe:
SKIN A:
110g of plain flour (1 cup)
10g of custard powder (2 tsp)
1 tbsp of beaten egg (my measuring spoon is 1 tbsp = 15ml)
28g of margarine (about 2 tbsp and I use lard here)
45ml of water (3 tbsp)
SKIN B:
90g plain flour
60g shortening (approximately 4 tbsp and here and again, I use lard)
FILLING:
95ml of hot water (1/4 cup + 3 tbsp)
60g sugar (I use 4 1/2 tbsp), dissolved in hot water above and left too cool completely
2 small eggs
25ml of evaporated milk (1 tbsp + 2 tsp)
A few drop of vanilla (I removed this and added in 1 tsp of rum because according to Aunty Yochana, rum essence can remove the eggy taste from the filling)
The steps are the same as mentioned. But I did not beat the eggs in the filling as called for. I stir it lightly with a chopstick and pass it through a strainer twice. I then leave it aside until needed.
The water-sugar syrup must also be left to cool before mixing with egg, milk and rum as the hot syrup might cook the egg. Then you'll get scrambled egg and won't get a yellowy filling!
I roll the skin as what I've showed in the picture. I've seen this way of rolling somewhere and it indeed produces a thousand layer more quickly. Always remember to dust your table top .
The SKIN B tends to be very sticky. What I do is, I mix it with my hand in a bowl until it is well mixed. Then, I scrapped off leftovers stuck on my hand with a plastic spatula onto a large square cling film and pour the rest of them from the bowl onto the cling film. I then simply wrap it up and sorta from a square and leave it in the fridge to chill.
That's about it and I hope this information helps. Happy trying and Enjoy Baking!
Truly yours,
Quinn
I remember there was this period when I start venturing into making breads and buns and each and every loaf was kneaded purely with hand and love for an average of 30mins per recipe.
I have adapted yet again another recipe from HHB. Her garlic buns were very good... It's soft yet fluffy when just out of the oven.... I thought the garlic paste look like mashed banana.
I just snip the opening of the bread with a pair of scissors as all the knives in my kitchen were blunt. My buns weren't really torpedo shape either. But, all that doesn't matter as the texture was what I was going after rather than the look.
This is currently my favourite bun!
