First Attempt At Baking Matcha Egg Tarts
When the matcha egg tarts at dim sum just don’t cut it, you make your own! Having said that, I've developed a whole new level of appreciation for the talented bakers out. Perfecting a pastry is HARD WORK!
What I was trying to achieve aka. my criteria for a good egg tart consists of:
A filling that’s silky smooth, creamy in texture and slightly jiggles as you pick it up. A puff pastry shell that’s flaky, slightly crispy, buttery but not greasy. Traditionally, I like the eggy flavour to come through in the filling but in this case I was looking for mostly matcha with a hint of egg.
Recipe (adapted from iamafoodblog.com)
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar
3/4 tbsp flour
4 teaspoons matcha (cause I'm extra)
1.5 large egg yolks
1 1/2 tbsp sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Challenges & Results:
Since I couldn’t find a recipe to follow, I had to improvise the matcha egg tart filling by adding matcha powder to the usual suspects: eggs, milk, water, and sugar. Having the flexibility to control the intensity of matcha and level of sweetness was super exciting but achieving that appealing smooth texture with no holes was a huge challenge. I think the ratio of matcha and liquid ingredients weren't balanced so the filling didn't set within the suggested baking time. When I cut the tart in half, the matcha filling oozed out like a thick paste so I put the remaining egg tarts back in the oven to see if it would hold eventually. The answer is yes, but the top wasn't smooth and contained tiny holes.
Another challenge was getting the pastry shell to brown, and it didn't taste flakey — in fact it almost tasted stale. I had Daniel (previously Crackle Creme, now Craque Le Creme) order me some egg tart shells from a Chinese bakery a while back so the result could've been because of various reasons. I wonder if I would've had better results by pre-baking the tart a bit before I added the filling for more colour and to ensure the filling doesn't overbake.
Despite the egg tarts not meeting my expectations, they were still very good in their own way! There's just so much room for improvement :)
My takeaway:
Baking is a science and I’ve got a lot of experimenting to do to get a better understanding of the measurements and ratio of the ingredients. I'll definitely be making my own egg tart shells next time round and will follow the entire recipe to the T before I start experimenting.
How do you think I did? Have you made egg tarts before? Please share your tips & tricks with me in the comment section below!
XOXO.
Steph
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