Portuguese Egg Tarts Recipe

I absolutely madly deeply love Portuguese egg tarts, and so far the best (and the only one) that I have tasted are from Baker's Cottage. I used to purposely make a trip to the one here just to buy the tarts. Really really good, I easily swallow a few like some supplementary pills.

During my recent baking rendezvous, I discovered the convenience of frozen puff pastries. That I when I knew I had to make the egg tarts at home on my own. With the help of frozen puff pastries. And the oven. And the online recipe.

Frozen puff pastries can be purchased at any hypermarkets or baking supply shops. You either get the thick block, which needs to be rolled out to desired thickness, or large rolled out slices, which can be used as they are.

One website that I really love referring to when making local dishes is Rasa Malaysia. And their Portuguese egg tarts recipe looked (and read) very yummy to the core. Notice the oxymoron, local dish on Rasa Malaysia which is the Portuguese egg tarts. Nevertheless, I gave it a go!

Their recipe is only for 10 tarts, and I was using the muffin tray with 12 molds on it. So I had to increase the portion a bit. Except the sugar, I went easy and reduced it.

You Need:

For the pastry
A large slice of frozen puff pastry

For the filling
5 egg yolks
1/3 cup of sugar (feel free to reduce it)
1/3 cup of whipping cream, plus a little extra
1/3 cup of milk, plus a little extra
3 drops of vanilla essence

Method:

1. Beat all the ingredients for the filling together for 5 minutes. To get a smooth custard, strain the mixture through a strainer, and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C while preparing the pastries.
3. Cut the pastry in a round shape to fit the muffin tray. After much trial and errors, I finally got the perfect size. I used a stainless steel bowl that is 4 inches in diameter. 

4. On a buttered muffin tin, line the pastry carefully, and press the sides to get a perfect fit.
5. Carefully pour the custard mix till 80% of the pastry mould.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or till the tarts turn yummy brown.

Really I don't think you need to be told how yummy should the brown-ness be. In case you still need to know... this is how, under different flash and effects of the camera, to suit your climate and lighting:

Notice the varying levels of pastry? That is my trial and error cutting and shaping the circles manually. Only the 4 inch bowl worked in getting the perfect size and depth.

The taste, texture, and over results were almost perfect for a first time attempt. Do reduce the sugar because it still gets very much sweet. And here's some insider tip, they taste better the next day, no joke! 

I had actually baked them in early March, and now looking back at the pictures it is making me hungry and tempted to make more!