Cantonese Egg Tarts II 港式蛋挞

Over the years, I've made egg tarts on few occasions. The result mostly looked rough and rustic but this time these tarts look  like the real deal! That said, am still trying to achieve a melt in the mouth lighter crust. Mine have slight chewy tart shell. I'll have to work on my short crust pastry technique. However, the filling is exactly what I'm looking for.

Cantonese Egg Tarts

serves : 12-15 tarts

I have halved the recipe from Guai Shu Shu

Ingredients

For tart shells 

1 egg (lightly beaten) 

220 grams of plain flour (sifted) 

40 grams of icing sugar (sifted) 

100 grams of chilled butter (cut into cubes) 

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence (optional) 

For egg custard filling   

220 grams of fresh milk 

75 grams of castor sugar 

2 eggs 

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence (optional) 

Pre-heat the oven to 180°c

In a big mixing bowl, put butter cubes and sifted plain flour together. Use the finger tips to rub the butter cubes and flours together until it become crumby. Add in sifted icing sugars and continue to rub until well mix.

Add lightly beaten eggs and vanilla essence, mix slowly until it become a dough. Put it in the fridge to chill for 20-30 minutes. Note that if you are able to handle soft dough, you can by pass this step. Take the dough from the fridge and use a rolling pin to roll it into a flat sheet with about 0.5 cm thickness.

Use a round cutter to cut about the size of the mould.  Note that this step is optional and will help you to roughly gauge the amount of dough required and you still need to adjust the quantity of dough as you progress.  Use your hand to press the dough against the sides and make it as even as possible. Use a knife or anything sharp to cut off the sides. If preferred, use a fork to lightly make some holes to let any trapped air to escape.  However, this step of making hole is optional. Set aside for later use.

For crispier crust, bake the tart shell in the pre-heated oven of 180 degree Celsius for 10 minutes. However, this step is also optional. 

For filling :-
In a microwavable bowl or mug, heat the milk until boiling hot (if you do not have a microwave oven, just heat the milk over the stove). Set aside for the next step. 

In a big mixing bowl, put egg, sugar and vanilla essence. Use a hand whisk to beat until well mixed. Pour the hot milk to the mixture and use a sift to sieve the custard mixture. 

Pour the custard mixture to the pre-baked tart shells. 
  
Bake the egg tarts in the pre-heated oven of 180˙c for 10-15 minutes. Once the tarts starts to puff up a bit, open the oven door, leave the door ajar and continue to bake the tarts for another 5 –8 minutes. A tart is considered as baked when a toothpick inserted in the centre of the tart, the toothpick stands upright. The tarts is best served warm when the custard is still soft and crust crispy.

Cantonese Egg Tart { 蛋挞 }

Egg Tarts is a popular dessert amongst the Cantonese community. The tart shell should be flaky and light while the egg custard silky smooth. As you can see from mine, it is neither :D. I'm still in the process of refining my technique. The reason I'm posting here is to note down the recipes that I've followed.

Cantonese Egg Tart { 蛋挞 }

For the tart shells, recipe from Anncoo Journal

125g Cold butter - cut to cubes

120g Icing sugar, sifted

1 Egg

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

320g Plain flour - sifted

• Cream butter and icing until light and fluffy. Add in egg and mix well.
• Pour in flour and mix for few seconds, stop machine.
• Use a rubber spatula to fold the flour mixture into a soft dough.
• Put soft dough in a plastic bag and chill in the fridge for 30 mins or freezer for 20 mins.
• Divide the pastry into 15 small balls and evenly press into 15 tart moulds. If you find the pastry is too soft and sticky, just return it to the fridge to harden a little.
• Prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork to allow steam to escape as the shell bakes.
• Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 10 minutes or until lightly brown. Remove from oven and leave to cool.

For the filling , recipe from Yummy Bakes
200g boiling water

150g sugar

5 eggs

250g fresh milk

1. Dissolve sugar in boiling water, let it cool, add egg and fresh milk.  Do not beat, just stir and mix.
2. Strain the mixture and pour into the pre-baked tart shells  Bake at 180C for 20 mins or until cooked.

Poppy seed bread pudding {Mákos Guba}

Okay, I know this looks strange..haha. If you like poppy seed desserts you will like this.
After many years living in Hungary, strangely I haven't tried Mákos Guba before this. Perhaps because I am still getting use to poppy seeds. Slowly, I got used to it, but only in poppy seeds pie! Well, I think it is time to  add another dessert which feature this ingredient into my limited experience.

Poppy seeds bread pudding {Mákos Guba}
adapted from I like Baking

Ingredients for 6 servings:

6 pcs stale crescent rolls (you could also use sweet bread, baguette)

450 ml milk

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped (or sub. with vanilla sugar)

40 g unsalted butter

75 g ground poppy seed (I used much more for 3 pax)

75 g castor sugar (or to taste)

4 tbsp honey

1 finely grated lemon rind

1 pinch of ground clove (sub. with ground cinnamon)

Method (for pictorial, check out the link provided!)
1) Pre-heat oven at 180°c. Lightly grease baking pan (26x17cm)
2) Slice up  the rolls/bread and set aside.
3) Add vanilla seeds, honey and butter into milk and bring it to boil.
4) Pour boiled milk over the rolls/bread prep. earlier.
5) Mix together poppy seeds, lemon zest, ground cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle all over rolls/bread. Mix well. Be careful not to mush up the bread.
6) Pour the mixture onto the greased baking dish, prep earlier and let it bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 mins. or until the edges of bread are crispy.
7) Serve warm. To serve, you could sprinkle with icing sugar and drizzle over some custard.

Quiche Lorraine without pastry crust

Quiche Lorraine without pastry crust
source : Taste

Ingredients (serves 6)

1 tablespoon olive oil 
1 brown onion, finely chopped 
4 rashers bacon, rind removed, finely chopped 
1 cup grated tasty cheese 
3 eggs 
1 teaspoon plain flour 
300ml cream 
1/2 cup milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a fluted 3cm deep, 23cm (base), loose-base flan pan.
2. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and bacon. Cook for 3 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Cool. Sprinkle over pastry. Top with cheese.
3. Reduce oven temperature to 180°C. Whisk remaining ingredients and salt and pepper in a jug. Pour over bacon. Place onto tray. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until set. Stand for 5 minutes. Serve.

Soy milk pudding (Tofu fa)

Soy milk pudding (Tofu fa)
serves : 1 - 2 pax

Ingredients
200ml soy milk
30ml cold water
1/2 Tbsp powdered gelatine

Sugar syrup
3-4 Tbsp sugar , or to taste
1/2 cup water
few slices of ginger, optional

Steps
1) Heat soy milk gently, do not boil. I heat the milk for 1:30 mins. in the microwave. Set aside while you get ready the gelatine
2) Put double boiler on stand by while sprinkle powdered gelatine over cold water and let it sit for 5 mins. untouched. After 5 mins. heat gelatine over double boiler until gelatine dissolves. Do not let it boil.
3) Mix together gelatine and heated soy milk. Let it set in the fridge for at least 6 hrs. or over night.
4) Cook ingredients for syrup. Serve soy milk pudding with either cold or hot syrup.

Vanilla custard "Pie" using Dr.Oetker Házi Krémes krém

Vanilla custard slice or Francia Krémes (in Hungarian) is quite a favourite over here in Hungary. I've tried making vanilla slice using one of the recipes found on the www without success ; the cream just not as stiff and stablised as those we buy from confectioneries. So, when Dr. Oetker launched this new product Házi krémes krém I was intrigued and bought it immediately.

Of course in future I would like to try my hand in making the custard from scratch again but this product is very convenient by just mixing cold milk and instant powder. This is definitely something you can use when short of time.

Vanilla custard "pie"

Pie Crust recipe from Joy of Baking
While waiting for pie crust to cool, whisk together the custard powder with milk (as per packet's instruction)

Pour the custard onto pie crust. Let it set in fridge for 1 hour.

I make basic toffee (butter, cream and brown sugar) to drizzle on top.

YUM!

Crčme Caramel

Top photo was taken from the site where I found the Crčme Caramel recipe and bottom was the result of it. Yeah, not so pretty ; however, tasted really good..yum! I shall be investing in ramekins soon :)

Original recipe is in Hungarian but with google translator, I was able to make sense of the recipe. You should still visit the site for step by step pictorial.

Crčme Caramel
from Desszert.eu

Ingredients (serves 6)

600 ml milk
100 g sweetened condensed milk
4 whole eggs
1 Vanilla pod
170 g sugar
Pinch of salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 C.

2. Pour milk into saucepan, cut the vanilla pod lengthwise and put vanilla pod into milk. Add in in 30 g of sugar. Bring to the boil while stirring, then cover and let stand for 20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, pour remaining sugar into another saucepan with water and cook over low heat suntil the sugar becomes caramel.

4. Pour the caramelized sugar into ramekins

5. In a bowl, stir together the eggs, condensed milk, and pinch of salt, then pour into cooled vanilla flavoured milk (after removing vanilla pod) and stir until smooth.

6. Then pour egg-milk mixture into ramekins.

7. Place ramekins into bigger baking pan and pour about an inch of hot water. Bake in the oven for about 45mins.

8. Remove from baking pan and let custard cool completely in refrigerator for about 2 hours.

9. Once custard is cooled cut around the mould with flat bladed knife for easier removal of custard onto a plate.

Changes I've made :-
I took out the custard during half way baking (when the custard is firmer), then stuck store-bought sponge fingers onto the custard , cover the custard with foil and place it back into the oven and continue baking until the custard is set.

The addition worked well. The sponge fingers weren't soggy but instead added a nice texture to the custard.

My version of Floating Island Cake

Hungary's cake of the year 2007 was Madártej Torta (Floating Island Cake) ; which became a favourite of ours. However, if we crave it we would have to pre-order a whole cake as our neighbourhood bakery does not include it in their daily offerings .. not a problem, but with just the two of us, it is too big of a cake :(

So, I thought I would try baking it myself. After looking at the long list of ingredients and processes, I backed out :p Then I searched for other similarly named recipes with fewer ingredients before finally decided upon combining two recipes from my recipes folder to see if I can recreate the taste that I craved.

My version of Floating Island Cake (or Egg Custard Cake)

For the base (recipe from here )

-->

100 g butter, softened
85 g caster sugar (100 ml) - reduced and mixed with vanilla sugar
1 large egg
175 g plain flour (300 ml)
0.5 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt

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First, prepare the pastry. Cream butter and sugar. Mix the dry ingredients, then mix into the butter mixture together with egg. Press the pastry onto the base and sides of a buttered 26 cm springform tin. Put into the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.

For the custard filling

2 eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 cups whole milk

100gm sugar

Pre-heat oven at 180°c.

Lightly beat the eggs, taking care not to produce any air bubbles. Stir in the milk and the sugar.

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Take out the base from the fridge, pour the custard filling onto chilled pastry base (over a sieve) . Bake until the custard is cooked and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean (about 35 minutes). Set aside to cool

To serve

Whipped cream and pipe or spread on top of custard and sprinkle with toasted almond flakes before serving

Verdict

This simple recipe obviously it is not going to taste like the original cake but I'm absolutely happy with my hybrid version :)

Coconut milk jelly with sweet corn custard

Lately I have been craving for some cool jelly desserts as the temperature sores this summer. Back home to make jelly, we normally use agar-agar but I have experimented using gelatine since agar-agar in not available to me.

Coconut milk jelly with cream of sweet corn
serves 2

Ingredients
For the jelly
150ml coconut milk (from a can)
3 level tsp gelatine powder (determined by following ratio stated on the gelatine packet)
pinch of salt
sugar , to taste

For the crème pâtissière (egg custard)

You may follow from here

or what I did was
1 egg yolk
about 150 ml whole milk
15ml coconut milk
sugar, to taste
sweet corn (from can), sprinkle as many as you like
about 1Tbsp flour

Method
For jelly
Make jelly according to instruction stated on gelatine packet
Heat coconut milk until lukewarm, add in the gelatine powder and heat mixture until boiling point. Remove from heat and pour in to desired moulds. Set aside to cool and later put in to fridge until it is needed for serving.

For custard
1) In a bowl, mix together egg yolk and flour until smooth. Set aside.
2) Heat milk, coconut milk, sweet corn and sugar until boiling point. Remove from heat.
3) Pour half of the heated milk+ coconut milk slowly into the egg yolk+flour mixture while whisking continuously. Combine well
4) Now pour egg mixture into the remaining heated milk , put it back to the heat and cook until thickens as desired.

Hungarian Milk Custard { Tejes Pite }

photo credit : Puszta.com (my shot just turned out crappy...)

When I saw the photo above at the mentioned site, I knew I have to make this dessert. It looked delicious plus I haven't tasted one before :) Another reason I like this recipe is that the ingredients could be easily available in one's pantry.

So, yesterday I woke up early morning (4.30am) to make this custard cake in order for it to cool in time to bring along with us when we visit my M&FIL.

The recipe has been scaled down based on 2 eggs instead of five. Just do simple math to get the approriate portion of each ingredients. Also, the baking time needs to be shorten in view of lesser liquid involved.

Verdict
It was indeed an easy dessert to whip up but with satisfying result. In fact, my MIL loved it! She told us that it brought back some childhood memories when her mom used to bake it for her. We found out that she doesn't have the recipe (No wonder she hasn't baked this for us!) So, I'll be printing the Hungarian version of this recipe for her to try out.

For full recipe visit:-
Puszta.com


Update: I've copy and pasted the original recipe here for my own archive

Ingredients:

5 egg yolks
30 g vanilla sugar
150 g sugar
100 g margarine
250 g flour
1 liter milk
5 egg whites
salt
zest of 1 lemon
margarine to grease baking pan
breadcrumbs


Preparation time: 1.5 hours


Difficulty: ☺


Preparation:

In a large bowl mix egg yolks, vanilla sugar, sugar, pinch of salt. Add margarine and the lemon zest. Add flour and milk gradually to sugar mixture, beating to a thin smooth batter.

Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt, until stiff peaks form, then add it carefully to the pancake dough.

Coat the bottom of a 26 cm baking pan with margarine, sprinkle with breadcrumbs and pour the dough into it. Sprinkle the top with small pieces of margarine. Put into a cold oven, then turn on the heat to 150 ºC and bake it for 1 hour.

When the pie is done, cool for a few minutes, then cut into 8-10 bars. Serve it with apricot jam, but it tastes delicious by itself as well.


Hint:

• Use hand mixer to get a smooth batter.
• Do not add baking powder or baking soda.
• Cool the egg whites before beating.
• Add a pinch of salt or a few drops of lemon juice to the egg whites, to make it easier to beat.
• Mix only half of the beaten egg whites to the dough, then carefully fold in the other half, without breaking it up much.

Custard cake

I knew baking this perfect custard cake would be a minor challenge with my novice baking skills. Sure enough the egg white didn't turn out right! Hence, when pouring the cake mixture on to the custard mix, the cake mixture sank right to the bottom... I proceeded to baking it nonetheless.

After 25 minutes (shorter time due to reducing of custard topping), the cake came out nice and brown. It appeared ok after all ! We enjoyed this cake very much and sure that it will be a regular for special occasions :)

Thanks Pinoy Cook for sharing!

Soy milk pudding (豆腐花)

Out of the blue I have this strong urge to experiment instant pudding powder with soy milk. I imagined it would taste very much like tofu fa (in canotonese 豆腐花) , a popular asian dessert. True enough I found that it is possible at Recipezaar .

What you'll need ...
1) 1 packet of instant pudding powder
- I used Dr.Oetker's vanilla flavoured pudding w/bourbon packet, simply because I couldn't find non-flavoured pudding powder.. anyway, the vanilla flavour and bourbon was too light to be noticed)

- cook according to manufacturer's instruction but substitute milk to soy milk instead and no sugar added.

2) Make sugar syrup, to taste

- since I ran out of brown sugar, castor sugar was used instead for the syrup. Brown sugar give a more attractive contrast to the dessert as seen in this photo unlike mine :p

- add syrup only when serving.

VerdictObviously I didn't expect the texture to be as smooth as the original. But the taste is near enough for me. I like it !

Next round I'll reduce the amount of soy milk, so that it will set easier and nicer.