The egg tart (蛋撻, daan taat in Cantonese) is definitely one of Hong Kong’s iconic pastries that you will be able to find in any local bakery, dim sum restaurant and cha chaan tengs (local HK cafe). As a former British colony, the egg tart is a perfect example of how the Brits influenced Hong Kong cuisine. The Hong Kong-style egg tart was introduced in the 40s and its creation was influenced by British custard tarts and Portuguese pastel de nata.
Nowadays, egg tarts come in different sizes, custard fillings and outer shell. I’ve seen fillings such as chocolate and even matcha. But the standard types you will see in most bakeries are shortcrust pastry and puff pastry. In this recipe we’ll be making the basic short crust pastry!
ingredients for hong kong-style egg tart:
~tart shell:
- 50g unsalted butter
- 30g sifted powdered sugar
- 100g cake flour*
- 1 egg yolk
- a pinch of salt
~egg custard filling:
- 60mL water
- 20g sugar
- 1 egg
- 40g evaporated milk
why cake flour?
- Cake flour has less protein than regular all-purpose flour, which means less gluten is formed when mixing the batter together. Less gluten formation would lead to a lighter, fluffier and loose-crumb texture, which is the kind of texture we want when baking pastries such as making Hong Kong-style egg tarts.
- If you cannot find cake flour in your local supermarket, you can make a substitute at home by measuring 1 cup all-purpose flour, removing 2 tbsp, and replacing it with 2 tbsp of cornstarch; then sift it together twice to aerate the flour mixture.
more Asian dessert recipes:
- Cheese mochi balls
- Black glutinous rice with mango and coconut milk
- Black sesame tang yuan (glutinous rice balls)
hong kong-style egg tart (港式蛋撻)
9
servings45
minutes20
minutesThis Hong Kong-style egg tart recipe is enough to make 9 medium sized tarts, it depends on the size of your mould!
Keep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
- tart shell:
50g unsalted butter
30g powdered sugar, sifted
100g cake flour*
1 egg yolk
a pinch of salt
- egg custard filling:
60mL water
20g white sugar
1 egg
40g evaporated milk
Directions
- make the tart shell:
- In a mixing bowl, combine butter, powdered sugar and egg yolk. Then mix in cake flour and salt. Mix everything well until it forms into a dough.
- Cover the dough with cling film and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
- make the egg custard filling:
- Dissolve the sugar in hot water.
- In a bowl, whisk one egg, then add evaporated milk and sugar water and combine well.
- Pour the mixture into a jug through a strainer to remove excess bubbles.
- make the egg tart:
- Preheat the oven at 190˚C / 347˚F.
- Distribute the dough evenly to the the egg tart moulds, then evenly pour the egg custard to fill the tart shells [Note: Make sure to leave at least 1cm space and not fill to the top, as the custard rises during baking].
- Bake at 190˚C / 347˚F for 17-20 minutes. Allow the tarts to cool for 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
- If you cannot find cake flour in your local supermarket, you can make a substitute at home by measuring 1 cup all-purpose flour, removing 2 tbsp, and replacing it with 2 tbsp of cornstarch; then sift it together twice to aerate the flour mixture.
