Travelling with Hong Kong egg tarts

 

 

I believe that one does not necessarily have to be in a place physically to travel, there are many other ways of travelling and one of those is through food. Last Saturday I got the privilege of visiting Hong Kong all thanks to The woks of life website and my oh so yummy, dreamy egg tarts.

A lot of the times, I learn about new recipes and food through movies and TV shows. Julie and Julia just blew me away; I have made a promise to myself that before I turn 25 I will attempt a similar challenge.

Last week Saturday, I was watching some Korean show, boys over flowers and I saw egg tarts, which I brushed off, but they kept haunting me until I decided to look for a recipe and try them out. I must say, they did not look as pretty as the website I got the recipe but hey, do not judge a book by its cover, they were crazy good. So easy and yummy, everyone should have this recipe in his or her books for a quick snack.

you can visit the following website: Hong Kong egg tarts

 

Prep Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Yield: 20-24 tarts

Ingredients

 

200g all purpose flour (1 ½ cups)

1/8 teaspoon salt

½ cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon

200g unsalted butter, room temperature but not softened (14 tablespoons)

2 tablespoons cold water

scant 1 cup hot water

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup evaporated milk, at room temperature

3/4 teaspoon vanilla

In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, and 1 tablespoon sugar. Add the butter and break it up roughly with your fingers, making sure to keep visible little chunks of butter in the dough. Add 2 tablespoons of cold water and bring the dough together. Add a tiny bit more water if necessary, but not too much. Cover the dough and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured board, knead gently, and form into a neat rectangle. Roll the dough away from you (not back and forth), forming a 20 x 50cm rectangle (about 8x20 inches). Try to keep the edges even, and don’t overwork the butter streaks. Flecks of butter should still be visible in the dough.

Fold the top third of the dough down to the center, then the bottom third up and over that. Give the dough a quarter turn (left or right) and roll out again to three times the length. Fold the same way as before, cover, and chill for 30 minutes.

While the dough is resting, make the filling. Dissolve 1/2 cup sugar into the cup of hot water, and allow to cool to room temperature. Whisk eggs and evaporated milk together and then thoroughly whisk in the sugar water and vanilla. Strain through a very fine mesh strainer--this step is extremely important to getting a smooth, glassy egg tart.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F/200 degrees C and position a rack in the lower third of your oven. Roll out the dough and cut circles to fit your tins (you can also use a shallow muffin pan). Press the dough into the tins and use a ladle to fill each tart shell until just reaching the edges of the outside crust. Once filled, immediately (but very carefully) transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F/180 degrees C and bake another 10-12 minutes, until filling is just set (if a toothpick can stand up in it, it’s done). If you see the shells start to puff up a bit, crack open the oven a little, and they should settle back down.

You can let the tarts cool for a couple minutes and enjoy them while they’re still hot.