Monday, April 16, 2007

坊太与你: Ah Fong Egg Tart

This is one recipe that I wanted to try so long, as I used to be an egg tart freak, and my highest record is to eat 4 tarts at one time. Generally there are two varieties of egg tart crust. One has flaky kinda outer crust, which is called puff pastry (酥皮 in Chinese) and has an extremely crisp texture due to the several layers of butter in the doughing process. Another type is shortcrust pastry, which has a cookie-liked texture with rich butter aroma.

The type of egg tart that I love most (so far) is with puff pastry crust, and that's the type of egg tart that I can eat 4 in a row. But last Sunday when a group of us had dim sum at The Home of Dim Sum, a few of them claimed that they prefer egg tarts with shortcrust pastry more. Since the making of puff pastry is much more complicated and time-consuming than shortcrust pastry, I didn't want to trouble myself too much in this tranquil afternoon; moreover I need to satisfy most of the testers. :D



Ingredients:
For shortcrust:
3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of caster sugar
1 cup of room temperatured butter (or margarine for health-conscious people)
2 eggs
½ tsp of vanilla essence

For tart filling:
2/3 cup sugar
2 ½ cup milk
10 eggs
½ tsp of vanilla essence

Yield: approx 24 tarts


Method:
For tart shell:
1. In a large mixing bowl, sift flour. Add in sugar.
2. Add in butter and mix all ingredients with a spatula till resemble bread crumbs.
3. Add in eggs and vanilla essence into the mixture. Start mixing to form a dough. If the dough is too wet, add some flour. And if it's too dry, add a little bit more of butter.
4. Take an adequate amount of dough and place it in the tart tin (I used Teflon coated non-stick muffin tray) and push the dough all the way up to the rim to form a shell. If the bottom of the shell is too thin, patch it up with more dough.

** At this stage, you can start to preheat your oven at 200°C.



For filling:
1. Make sure all the filling ingredients are in room temperature.
2. Lightly stir the eggs with a fork and try not to produce any air bubbles. Add in the dash of vanilla essence into the egg mixture.
3. In another bowl, dissolve the sugar in the milk. The amount of sugar used can be adjusted to suit your own taste. Make sure that the sugar is fully dissolved at this stage.
4. Pour the egg mixture into the milk mixture over a sieve (to create a smooth texture of egg tart later on). Stir lightly.

To assemble:
1. Pour the egg mixture into the tart shells you made earlier. (I used a measuring cup with a pour spout to pour the mixture accurately into the shell.)
2. Place the tart tins in middle rack of a preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes (or till golden brown) at 180°C.

Personal note:
** Pierce the middle of the tart with a metal skewer or toothpick (I used a thin-ended chopstick) and it's considered done if it comes out clean.
** If you find out that the crust is too brown but the filling is still not quite done, reduce the temperature to 150°C and cook till done.

The first batch of 6 egg tarts came out to be too thick-skinned (just like me) and hence too little egg filling (Elmo didn't complain though). Therefore the second batch onwards, I made the shell thinner and everything turned okay. The tarts are really mouth-watering when they were just out from the oven, but the crust turned soggy after kept overnight. I woke up earlier today to reheat all the tarts in the oven, the tarts became crispy but again turned soggy when I reached the office. Arghhh, and I accidentally burnt my hand! *sob sob*

Elmo was trying hard to reach the egg tart.


Yummy!

Tell me what do you think of my tart? Feel free to leave your comment too. :)



PollPub.com VoteAh Fong Egg Tart is:
Wow! I am looking forward for your bakery!
Thanks. Ah Fong Egg Tart is as nice as those I can get outside.
Ah Fong Egg Tart is nice, but not as nice as those I get outside.
Erm, I don't quite fancy egg tart actually.
Yucks! That's the worst egg tart I ever had!



View Results

Poll powered by PollPub.com Free Polls

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

i am a tart lover!~~ i feel FF tart is 10xtimes better than pg12 cafeteria...i think if eat it in hot surely taste better... :p next time when u bake again, i wan go your house to taste lia...thanks u lenglui....the tart as sweet as u...

Anonymous said...

Taste : 7/10
Texture of crust : never try puff pastry type before
Texture of filling : 5/10 (softer better)

Comments : next best technique for you to learn i guess is to control the baking process so that the egg filling is softer and smoother :)

Fang Fang said...

haha mr horny... yesterday the filling was like 10x smoother than the one you tasted just now :(

i still can't figure out the best way to keep it overnight without affecting its taste and appearance.

Anonymous said...

This is my first time to test madam fong egg tart. I think the taste is nice. But the egg to biscuit ratio seems abit low. I eat biscuit more than the egg itself.

Thanks.

Kevin

pik lay said...

her egg tart is excellent for home .. not for commercial use yet.. What I can comment on the crust is. it is not as good as the one in cafe.. i guess cafe one is puff pastry... I like the type.. it is not so fine, but it is good enough to satisfy me. I say 7/10. The filling was quiet ok... i would say 8/10. But the one i got has very thick crust la.. i like soft one like horny.. so the 2/10 you cannot get is because it is not soft enough. It is heavenly taste btw... good job aunty ah fong

Fang Fang said...

congratulations to uncle kevin and auntie teo for being the lucky winners of the tart contest. both of them got my first batch of tarts! please refer to the post for more information.

Fang Fang said...

wei, cafe one is shortcrust also la... you don't get the flaky feelig. the puff pastry one are those we had at the dim sum place ma... you know the chicken pie skin? that's puff pastry..

pik lay said...

Yaya.. i mix up both. Corrected comment:

her egg tart is excellent for home .. not for commercial use yet.. What I can comment on the crust is. it is not as good as the one in cafe.. i guess cafe one is ##shortcrust##. I like the type.. it is not so fine, but it is good enough to satisfy me. I say 7/10. The filling was quiet ok... i would say 8/10. But the one i got has very thick crust la.. i like soft one like horny.. so the 2/10 you cannot get is because it is not soft enough. It is heavenly taste btw... good job aunty ah fong

Thian Min said...

as compared to tart selling outside.

the looook : 5/10
the taste (crust) : 5/10
(filling): 7/10
ratio : 6/10 (more filling next time :P)

still got room of improvements...

Fang Fang said...

haha i know the look really cannot... the crust stick a lot on the filling when i stack them up together.. i think that's why when you da pao 2 egg tarts outside the stall aunty will stack them up mouth to mouth. i dislike soggy crust too :(

terry said...

i give Elmo 10/10 cuteness~

Anonymous said...

taste:8/10
look:5/10
testure:6/10
effort:9/10
appreciation:priceless

pik lay said...

In ur recipe, for tart filling, the number of eggs are 10.. but why you only break 9 eggs into bowl?

Anonymous said...

i wan more tart!!~~

Fang Fang said...

haha good question. actually the original recipe call for 9 eggs, but after that i found out that the filling is way too watery, so i alter the recipe by adding 1 extra egg.

hANNiS said...

Err...Do you have moist chocolate tart? Put in chocolate instead of egg york inside. Got?? No ar?? Then...

Taste : * (not chocolate 1, max can get 1 star)
Texture : ** (still ok lar..at least i know that is something can be eaten)
Creativity: (no star, not creative at all, dull egg tart)

[maximum is 5 stars]

Fang Fang said...

sihang... please bang your head on the wall... you no eat come here ki ki kat kat ahhh

vivienne said...

i think that the whole appearence of the egg tart is very unique. maybe it could become your trademark someday. but since i didnt taste the tart at all, from my experince, its quite hard to make the whole thing, especially to get the smooth texture of the filling. the one that i learn from my mom's is totally different. the skin is light yelow one, and very soft. have to be very gentle when you eat it, if not the whole tart will smash up.

FF, i still think your egg tart is something special.