Hong Kong-Style Puff Pastry Egg Tarts 酥皮蛋撻 / 油皮蛋撻 (Easy Method) from Scratch | Recipe

Have you wanted to learn how to make those delicious flaky egg tarts eaten at dim sum or at a local Chinese bakery? Now I've created a recipe to make just that, except there's no knead to fold and fold strenuously to create the puff pastry- I'll be showing you a much easier way (and it's more time saving too!)

Puff Pastry dough recipe

330g of All-Purpose Flour (chilled in the fridge for at least 1 hour beforehand),

200g of Unsalted Butter (Frozen),

7-9 tbsp of Water (with a few ice cubes in),

1 tbsp of Lemon Juice

Method

1. In a large bowl, pour in the cold flour. Then, using a cheese grater, grate in the frozen butter.

2. Using a fork, coat the butter shavings well with the flour.

3. Add in the ice cold water, one tablespoon at a time, mixing until a rough ball forms.

The reason for adding the water a tablespoon at a time is so that you don't add too much which would create a wet dough- not what we're looking for. Depending on the humidity of your location, you could be using 7 tbs if you are in a humid/wet environment. For a drier environment you're looking towards adding 9tbsp max.

4. Add in the lemon juice and mix until a rough ball is formed. Feel free to use your hands and then place this dough ball onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Wrap well, flatten into a disk and then refrigerate until used.

Egg Tart filling recipe

95g of Sugar,

260ml of hot Milk,

2 Eggs,

1/2 tsp of Vanilla Extract

If you would like the egg filling to look more traditional, I suggest adding a few drops of yellow food coloring to give it that golden yellow color.

Method

1. Mix together the hot milk (heated in the microwave for around 1 minute) and sugar until it is dissolved. Let it cool before using.

2. Once cooled, whisk the 2 eggs in a large bowl. Then, whisk in the milk and vanilla extract. Now would also be the time you would ass the food coloring if desired.

3. Strain this mixture to remove any impurities and to achieve a smooth mouth-feel once baked.

4. Take the dough out and roll out to 12x12 inches on a floured surface.

5. Using a circular cookie cutter roughly the same size as your egg tart pans, cut out circles of dough.

6. Grease your egg tart moulds generously with butter.

7. Push the dough into the egg tart mould (in a pinching motion with your thumb in the tin and your index finger outside) so that you get a thin bottom and thicker sides. Also, push the dough slightly above the sides of the tin so it forms a high border.

8. Pierce the bottom of the dough with a fork several times, making sure not to pierce through the dough fully otherwise the egg filling will leak and will be hard to remove later on.

9. Fill each egg tart tin with the egg mixture until around 80% full.

10. Bake at 170c for 20-25 minutes. Let cool slightly and then serve warm while still crunchy and fresh!