butter.city

Chinese egg tarts! This is now my go-to recipe for using up spare egg yolks. It’s a quick and simple recipe, the base recipe uses 8 egg yolks for the custard, which means plenty of whites for meringues and frostings and all kinds of tasty other things. We’ve made this twice now, both very successful. A few notes though – first, the dough recipe makes 16 tarts, which doesn’t work in my 12 cupcake pan and needs a few more small tarts (either mini ones or medium sized ones). Also, for some reason when I bake at the temperature and time recommended, the custard poofs up a lot. It falls down when cooling which is fine, but then the surface of the custard is wrinkly like a Portuguese egg tart instead of a Taiwanese egg tart. I may need to tweak. But still tasty, so still posting now.

Recipe:

from Serious Eats’ Chinese Egg Tarts

takes about 1 hour

makes 14-16 small tarts

You need:

two large bowls, 1 cupcake pan, optional few tart pans

Crust:

1/2 c granulated sugar

11 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1/2 tsp salt

1 large egg

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour, loose

Custard:

1/2 c granulated sugar

1/2 tsp cornstarch

1/8 tsp salt

8 large egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 c heavy cream

3/4 c milk

Preheat oven to 375 deg.

In a large bowl, stir together 1/2 c granulated sugar, 11 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened and 1/2 tsp salt until combined. Then stir in 1 large egg, followed by 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour, loose until combined. Roll into balls and place one ball into each cup. With the extra balls, place into extra tart pans or set aside for a second batch.

Press the dough balls into the base of the cup, trying to keep the bottom corners of the cup at an angle to keep crust an even thickness all around. Maintain a thickness of about 1/8″. Place in refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.

In a second large bowl, whisk together 1/2 c granulated sugar, 1/2 tsp cornstarch and 1/8 tsp salt. Then pour in 8 large egg yolks, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2/3 c heavy cream and 3/4 c milk. Whisk until combined and most of the sugar is dissolved.

Using a ladle, fill each cup with custard, being careful to leave crust showing around the entire perimeter of the cup. If any custard overflows, it will burn slightly. Bake for 20 minutes until custard is just set. Let tarts cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container for 3-4 days.