Egg tart

Portuguese Custard Tarts

November 26, 2007 by Not Quite Nigella

I’ve always loves these custard tarts ever since they were huuuge years back and I suppose still are. I came across a recipe by Bill Granger via a friend and it seems pretty true to actual Portuguese custard tarts which pleases me no end. These are my finicky fat phobic Father’s steadfast favourite. In fact, I give him a dozen for his birthday, Father’s Day and Christmas and he absolutely refuses to share them with my mother so I should probably make some extra for her.

I halve the pastry amount that Bill puts in his recipe in an effort to make them more healthy. This may sound delusional but I’ve calculated that if you make it with skim milk or a half skim/half full fat milk it still tastes absolutely delicious and they’re about 120 cals each which is something of a miracle. In fact I’ve never made these with cream as the recipe says which I’m sure is heavenly but milk is great as the egg count thickens it considerably.

Portuguese tarts

Servings: Makes 12
Level of difficulty: Intermediate
Preparation Time: 25 minutes, plus cooling time and 5 minutes standing
Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 egg yolks (I prefer 2 egg yolks and 1 whole egg)
• 115g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 230ml Cream (I don’t use cream, I use milk)
• 170ml Milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (I use Queen Vanilla Bean Paste)
• 300g rolled puff pastry (I use one sheet of puff pastry)

Method
1. Lightly grease a 12-hole 80ml muffin tray.

2. Put the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a pan and whisk together. Gradually whisk in the cream and milk until smooth.

3. Place the pan over a medium heat and cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens and comes to the boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Transfer the custard to a bowl, cover the surface with cling film to prevent a skin forming and leave to cool.

4. Preheat the oven to 200C.

5. Cut the pastry dough sheet in half, put one half on top of the other and set aside for 5 minutes. Roll up the pastry tightly from the short end and cut the pastry log into 12 x 1cm rounds. Lay each pastry round on a lightly floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll out until each is 10cm in diameter.

6. Press the pastry rounds into the muffin tin. Spoon the cooled custard into the pastry cases and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry and custard are golden. Leave the tarts in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

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http://wibbybunny.blogspot.com/2005/02/sugar-high-friday-portuguese-egg-tart.html


Pastry A:
2 ½ cup flour (low gluten)
1 tbsp milk powder

Pastry B:
2 tbsp shortening
¼ tsp salt
1 egg
approximately 1/3 cup ice water

¾ cup butter

Filling:
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup milk
¼ cup whipping cream
3 egg yolks

1. Sift A into a mixing bowl, add ingredients B and mix until it forms into a smooth ball. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes.
2. Bring butter to room temp, and cut into slices approximately 3mm thick.
3. Roll dough out into a big rectangle and arrange butter pieces on half of the dough, fold dough over to cover the butter pieces, press with hands and then roll out with rolling pin. Sprinkle top with flour, cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
I have seen on TV where pastry chefs take their rolling pin and beat the block of butter into submission and seriously considered trying this out but my more practical judgment took over and I went the less dramatic way.

4. Turn dough a quarter turn, fold into threes (like a letter) and roll out. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes. Repeat this 3 or 4 times.

Let’s see, I think I started mine at 2:30pm and finished at around 5:00pm, so I guess I repeated this thing five times. Probably too many times, but I was having fun rolling the buttery dough out
5. Finally, roll the dough out into a large rectangle and fold onto itself like a jelly-roll. Let it rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, prepare tart filling by boiling the cream and milk gently and add the sugar to dissolve. Let cool slightly and add little by little into beaten egg yolks.
7. Strain through a tea strainer.
8. Preheat oven to 200F. Butter and flour a six-cup muffin pan.
9. Cut six 1cm thick slices from the rolled up dough (about 1 ounce each). Store the rest of the dough in fridge or freezer for later use.
10. Wet your fingers with cold water and shape each slice into a disc big enough to line a muffin cup.
11. Line the muffin cups and fill with egg mixture about ¾ full (about 2 tbsp per muffin cup)
12. Bake at 200C (400F) for 15-20 minutes, until brown spots appear on the surface of the filling.
13. Cool slightly on rack before removing.
14. Eat one right away to enjoy the flaky crust and the piping hot custard filling.

I am happy with the way the pastry turned out, although they didn’t puff up so magically as I had expected (I was of course watching the oven like a hawk the entire 20 minutes), but then again, for this recipe it's not supposed to puff up too much, otherwise the fillings would be expelled out of the shell. The tart filling however, can really be improved. For one thing, I probably overbaked it by a couple of minutes so the custard was a bit too cooked. A real Portuguese egg tart (ok, the Macao version) should just be on the verge of solid/liquid. Also, it wasn’t as flavorful as I had remembered. Maybe next time I will add a vanilla bean to the filling mixture.



The second time I made it, both pastry and custard filling had been sitting in the fridge for a couple of days, so the starting temp was low and I ended up under-baking it. You can see that the custard was not entirely solidified. And no signature brown spots! Will keep trying.



http://foodaholic.wordpress.com/2006/05/10/portuguese-egg-tarts/

Portuguese Egg Tarts Recipe
Ingredients..
500g ready made puff pastry

Filling
200g whipping cream
300g milk
80g sugar
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1/4 tsp vanilla essence

Method..
1. roll our the pastry to a rectangular shape about 3mm thick. roll it up like a swiss roll. chill until firm.
2. divide the pastry into 25g portions, flatten the pastry and roll it into about 3mm thickness. press onto the tart moulds.
3. filling: cook whipping cream and milk until 70c. stir in sugar and cook until sugar dissolves. add into the beaten eggs and egg yolks. mix until well blended. lastly add in the vanilla essence. set aside to cool.
4. pour the filling into the pasrty tarts from step 2. then bake at 220Cfor 20-25mins.

* these pastry doughs are so pampared..need to rest..need to chill.

cut the dough to abt 25g each … looks like mini mantou

the egg mixture

then line the dough into the mould.. and pour in the egg mixture (duh)

when it's in the oven.. the dough's starting to bloat..

ha.. does it looks like a Danish Peach Tart?.. hehe..

tada!!!

the second batch.. wasnt that neatly done..

eat eat eat… yummmy

the amount of stuff use are crazy..it doesnt look that much in quantity..but at the end of it..we made more than 2 dozen portugese egg tarts…wild…enough to distribute to your neighbours..haha..

after trying ourhands at making this..realized that we should probably avoid eating too much of egg tarts..jus look at the ingredients used and it spells calories..haha..

cheers..

http://beaulotus.blogspot.com/2007/10/marital-discussion-i-pastis-de.html

Pastéis de Nata (Portuguese Egg Tarts) :

Puff Pastry

Icing Sugar

Ground Cinnamon

2 Eggs

2 Egg Yolks

60g Sugar

140ml Whipping Cream

200ml Milk

A few drops Vanilla extract

We've been to Lisbon twice and one of the things we would keep popping into our mouths in between meals of gorgeous seafood and bacalhau dishes was their absolutely yummy Egg Tarts. Our favourite was the old establishment Pastéis de Belem in the capital.

I will not dare to say that I've gotten the recipe right, since the original recipe is still a closely guarded secret. And how you like the egg custard is really a matter of personal taste. I'm not too much into very smooth custards, and so will not even bother to strain or pre-cook my filling.

What is more important to me is the crust. It has to be very crispy and I am happy to say that I got it right. The trick is to pre-heat your oven to between 220 and 250ºC and then bake your tarts for the 1st 15 minutes in this temperature. Some would even pre-bake the pie crusts but I do not think that this is really necessary. Then finish the cuisson in a lower temperature (150-180ºC) for the last 5-10 minutes. Mine were small, shallow tarts so I adjusted the cooking time accordingly. Sprinkle the tarts with a ground cinnamon-icing sugar mix before serving. Truth be told, I used the mix even for the pie crusts and the filling. Just love it. And it's just as good eaten cold, actually.
http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=689