Hong Kong Style Egg Tarts

Step 1

Make oil dough. Cut the chilled butter into small pieces Put the butter and flour in an electric food processor.Use the pulse function to mix them until it forms bridges and strandsRemove it from the food processor, scoop out the oil dough with a metal spoon and place it on the water doughWrap it in cling film, place it in chiller for 20min or until it becomes firm.    | You can use puff pastry sheets for the tart shells| To make oily dough, you can also use your fingers to rub in the butter if you do not have a food processor

Step 2

Make water dough.Put the plain flour, egg and ice water in the electric food processorMix them until they combine and form a ballWrap it in cling film, place it in chiller for 20mins or until it becomes firm.

Step 3

Roll out pastry.Sprinkle some plain flour on table topRemove the cling film from the water dough, flatten the water dough to form a large squarePlace the oil dough in the center and fold the sides of the water dough over the oil dough. Make sure the water dough is fully covered by the oil dough.  Flatten it with rolling pin. Wrap it in cling film and leave it in the chiller for 20mins or until it hardens.Remove from chiller, flatten it with rolling pin to about 3cm thick. Fold both ends of the dough toward the center like closing a book.  Place it into the chiller again for 20mins. (If the dough is not wide enough, you can use the tri-fold method – fold 1/3 of the dough towards the right, and the remaining 1/3 towards the left).Repeat the folding process for 3 more timesAfter the last repetition, flatten the dough to about 3mm thickness.  Use a cookie cutter to cut out pieces of round pastry which are slightly larger than the area of the mold.Put the cut pastry into a mold. Lightly press the pastry onto the surface of the mold. Pierce few holes in the bottom with a fork.Trim the sides with a fork or a blunt knife.

Step 4

Filling.Melt the sugar with water to make a simple syrup.  Let it cook.Beat the eggs for a minute Add the milk and syrup to the egg.  Mix well.Filter the milk liquid twice to remove impurities and air bubbles.Fill each empty pastry shell up to 70%.    | You may wish to put fillings in the tart shells before pouring in the egg mixture too.    | You can tell when sugar is dissolved in the egg mixture once you don’t hear a “sandy” sound

Step 5

Bake the tarts.Preheat oven to 200⁰C.at 200⁰C for 15min.  After that, reduce heat to 180⁰C and bake for another 10min. Leave the oven door open for 5min before removing egg tarts from the oven| Piercing the bottom of the pastry with a fork prevents the bottom of the pastry from rising during baking.