Bread & Brulee: CNY & Egg Custard Tarts

Happy Lunar New Year! May this year of the snake be good and prosperous, despite its ominous reputation.

The past few times we've been to dim sum, it's been "too early" for dan tats (egg custard tarts) to be served. It is one of my favorite Chinese pastries, and I've definitely been craving it. My 2-year-old nephew also loves this treat, so much so that he yells "Bye bye, dan tat!" when he leaves the bakery with his mom. So for new year's dinner yesterday, I decided to give them a whirl. After taking a look at some recipes, I decided that it couldn't be that hard.

Unfortunately this was somewhat of a last-minute recipe decision, so I didn't get a chance to buy those aluminum tart pans that are synonymous with dan tats. I read that a muffin pan could be a substitute, so that's the route I took. The ease of this recipe and photo of the finished product sold me, so I went with this one over some others I saw on allrecipes.com. I converted some of the measurements from metric, and also made some tweaks based on a single dan tat that was my test one before throwing a whole pan in the oven.

Makes approx 12 egg tarts

(Pastry Crust)

8 tablespoons butter (softened)

1 egg

5/8 cup confectioner's sugar

1 1/2 cups flour (up to 1 3/4 cup if needed)

(Egg Filling)

3/4 cup white sugar

300ml water (not converted since my liquid measuring cup has ml)

4 eggs

80ml evaporated whole milk

(I believe the above made too much filling for the amount of dough that's produced, so I might halve it next time, or double the amount of dough.)

1) Mix and knead the pastry ingredients into a dough. Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes or until it’s in a workable state.

2) Boil the water and white sugar, leave it to cool.
3) Press the pastry into the mold/muffin pan. (I sprayed the pan with some baking spray to prevent sticking, just in case.) I rolled a piece of dough into about a 1.5" ball and then flattened it evenly into the muffin mold. I then pressed the dough up the sides until the desired height, which was right below the edge line.
4) Put milk and eggs into the cooled down sugar water. Sift the mixture so that it's smooth and lump-free.
5) Pour egg mixture into the tarts. (Be sure to add slowly as to not overflow.)
6) Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. You'll want to keep an eye on the tarts as the thickness of the dough determines how quickly the crust will brown. (I decreased the temperature from the recipe as it originally burned the crust, and the egg custard hadn't solidified yet.)
7) Cool the tarts slightly and take it out. Rest on wire rack until cool. These can be enjoyed warm as well!

These were a big hit and the flavor was pretty spot-on authentic, particularly the custard, which I wouldn't make any changes to. The crust was good too, but not quite the flaky type that I'm used to in the aluminum tin. I will either roll out the crust thinner next time, or look for a more flaky crust recipe. But this is definitely a recipe I will make again!

I was pressed for time, as we had to get to my in-laws' on time, but below are the photos I managed to snap.