Quick Menu


Saturday 18 April 2009

A Hong Kong inspiration - Portuguese Egg Tarts



On our recent trip to Hong Kong, The Lovely Wife found that she really enjoyed the egg tarts there. Although egg tarts are available in Malaysia, and they are pretty good too, she found that the ones in Hong Kong were really delicious. On our last night in Hong Kong, she tried Portuguese Egg Tarts and to say that she liked them would be a serious understatement!!

Portuguese Egg Tarts have a puff pastry shell as opposed to shortcrust in normal egg tarts. The egg custard is also a different consistency.

I decided I wanted to try and make these tarts for her!


For starters, I surfed the web. Then I talked to a few friends who had made this before and then I surfed the web some more. I finally came up with this recipe that is an iteration of different recipes off the web and also the experience of my friends.

The recipe calls for puffed pastry but rather than making my own which would take hours, I decided to use a ready rolled sheet - and I had one left over in the freezer!

This is what I did:

Ingredients
1 sheet Puff pastry
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
2 eggs
2 egg yolks

Method
Roll up the puff pastry like a swiss roll and chill for a little while. Meanwhile, make the custard. Heat the milk and cream and then dissolve the sugar into it. Set aside. Beat the eggs and egg yolks until combined and then slowly add a little of the milk mixture into the eggs to temper them. Pour the tempered eggs back into the milk mixture, whisking constantly. Strain the custard mixture and set aside.
Cut rounds from the pastry and roll it out to a thin circle and line a muffin pan with the pastry. Fill the pastry lined muffin pan with the custard mixture till slightly more than 3/4. Bake in a preheated 220C oven for about 25 minutes. The custard will billow up and get browned but will sink back once removed from the oven and cooled.

The verdict?



The Lovely Wife was rather surprised at how well the tarts turned out! It wasn't as good as the one's she had in Hong Kong but she was still very impressed - and that made me really happy. This is a picture of how the Portuguese Tarts in Hong Kong looked like.



Mine don't look too bad in comparison do they??!!


When I surfed the web for recipes, no one told me that the eggs would billow up so I thought that I was in for a disaster! It turned out really well although I think my pastry was a little too thick. Next time I will roll out the pastry till it is thinner and I will also cut down on the sugar a little bit as we found it a tad too sweet.

All said and done though, this was a very successful endeavour and I can now add Portuguese Egg Tarts to my list of things I can make!


10 comments:

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

I made something similar some time ago Dharm but had no idea what they were supposed to turn out like. I am glad that mine look somewhat the same:D

Magnolia said...

I am a portuguese that also love egg tarts and really glad to hear that so far away you found a recipe from my country

Ms. Kong Piang: said...

They look like cheese puffs. But i wished you made them earlier so that I could pop over for a few.

glamah16 said...

I have seen thes before but never tried them. You did great. I understand about visiting, I am in the same boat!

Pat said...

Hi Dharm,

I'm in Calgary now, visiting my daughter. And I've been popping into your blog for inspiration on what to make for dinner.

I think your burgher recipe is lovely. And I'm going to try out these egg tarts - as my daughter loves them.

I've tried other recipes you've shared here, and I'm taking the opportunity now to thank you for all of them. They've always turned out just as you promised they would ;)

Cheers,

Pat

Elle said...

Yours look great...are these like English custard tarts,only with puff pastry? Delightful little morsels!

Dharm said...

Val,
These tarts certainly are delicious. Very impressed that you made them too!

Magnolia,
Food just seems to bring everyone together from all over the world!

Ms KP,
Ya, I know they dont look as good as they should but they sure tasted great. There's always a next time as I'm sure I'll make these again...

Glamah,
Yes, yes, time is so hard to find sometimes :)

Pat,
Enjoy Calgary! So glad that my recipes worked out for you...

Elle,
The custard is a different texture from English custard tarts. Kind of hard to explain... come on over and i'll make you some! :)

Alicia Foodycat said...

Yours look delicious, but they don't have the little burnt patch in the dip on top that marks the great pastel de nata!

Anonymous said...

hmm I will try these. I think the differencef from the origonal to yours is. they used a glaze, and secondly the eggs. the soil would be differenttherefore the food the chooks est too. so the eggs have different flavour. try sourcing different ggs or farm eggs. your blog is inspiring. very impressed

Janet @Gourmet Traveller 88 said...

Hi Dharm, stumbled upon your egg tart post. I am from HK and so glad your wife loves the HK style egg tarts, we actually have 2 different styles HK style and Portuguese style, the one you have there is P Style. When they arrived from Macau, people queues for hours waiting for them. Cheers