Egg Tarts (Dan Tat) with Flaky Pastry – Betty Tam

Egg Tarts with Flaky Pastry

I adapted the recipe based on what I had available in my kitchen,  from the following recipes and techniques

http://gwenskitchencreations.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/egg-tart-dan-tat.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El0QqbL4CW4

Ingredients for Pastry

Oil Dough

75g butter

125g shortening (eg TREX or Flora White)

100g plain flour

Combine all the above ingredients together to form a soft dough and then wrap an cling film and chill in the fridge until firm.

Water Dough

125g plain flour

15g sugar

½ tablespoon of oil or shortening

100ml Cold water

Put the flour in a bowl.  Add the sugar and then mix in the oil and then slowly add the water to form a dough (you may not need all the water).  Lightly mix the dough until it comes together as a ball and then wrap it in cling film and place in fridge and allow to rest and chill to the same firmness as the oil dough.

Take both of the doughs out of the fridge (you might want to watch the YouTube video to follow the folding technique).

1. To make the dough roll out the water dough into a large rectangle and then take the oil and form it into a smaller rectangle and wrap the water dough around it.  The roll the doughs together back into a larger rectangle shape and then fold the pastry into three and then wrap this dough back up and pop it back in the fridge for about 20 mins.
2. Then roll out the dough again into another larger rectangle and fold the pastry over 4 times to create 4 layers in the direction perpendicular to the first three folds, cover the dough and then pop back in the fridge again for another 20 mins.
3. Then repeat the step 2.  Again making sure the folds are perpendicular to the previous folds.  Then pop the pastry back in the fridge again until you are ready to roll out the pastry for making the tarts.

Ingredients for Egg Filling   (feel free to use your own custard recipe if you like a silkier softer custard, but this is the recipe I used)

4 eggs

80g caster sugar (you can add more sugar if you like a sweeter  egg custard)

250ml boiling water

100ml evaporated milk

Mix the sugar and boiling water in a bowl until all the sugar has dissolved.  Allow this mixture to cool down.  Then add the evaporated milk.

Break the eggs into another bowl and gently stir the eggs to mix the white with the yolk without creating too many bubbles.

Making sure the syrup and milk mixture is cool, add the eggs and mix together.  Sieve the mixture twice and pour into a jug ready to fill the tarts.

Assemble the tarts together.  Roll out the pastry and cut discs out to the size slightly bigger than the diameter of your tart tins or cup cake pan.   Mould the pastry into each of the tins and prick the base of each tart with a fork a few times.

Preheat your oven gas mark 4 or about 180 deg C  (or slightly lower if you have a fan assisted oven).

Pour the egg mixture into each of the tarts to about ¾ full and then bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.  The pastry should puff out  and the egg mixture should just wobble.  After 20 minutes, turn off the oven heat,  leave the tarts in for about 10 mins with the door slightly open to allow the egg to set.  (Note the baking time will depend on the size of your tart tins, my tins are 6cm across and about 2.5cm deep  and required about 20 minutes but shallower tins will take less time, but had more tendency to overcook the custard so you will need to watch out).