Egg Tarts

I remember, as a kid, my parents used to buy egg tarts for me from a (now closed) bakery shop. These egg tarts were huge. They were shallower than the ones we get nowadays but double in diameter. I'm more of a crust girl, so custard aside, I loved how the crust was crunchy on the outside with a soft inner wall; soft enough for me to scoop up the custard together with the crust.

This recipe from Aunty Yochana was very good. I would suggest baking the egg tarts a day before, as the tarts were even more yummy the second day after baking.

I do not have tart moulds so I used muffin pans. I also adapted the recipe to suit our tastes.

Ingredients:
Pate Sucree:
125 gm. Butter - softened
45 gm. icing sugar
1/2 egg white
1 egg yolk
230 gm. plain flour
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence

Egg Custard:
280 gm. fresh milk
130 gm. sugar
3 nos. eggs
1 tsp. rum
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence

Method:

(1) For pate sucree: beat butter and icing sugar till well-mixed.
(2) Add in white and yolk and mix.
(3) Add in vanilla essence and then the flour and mix into a soft dough. Rest for 15 mins in refrigerator.
(4) Press dough into small tart moulds or muffin pans.
(5) For egg custard, heat sugar and milk together. Once sugar dissolves, turn off heat. Cool to room temperature.
(6) Whisk eggs and pour into the milk mixture. Do not whisk till frothy.
(7) Add in rum and vanilla essence.
(8) Sift the egg custard and pour into tart moulds and bake on lower shelf at 175C for 20 minutes. Rotate pan and bake for another 10 minutes till egg custard sets.

Note:
You will know that your custard has set when it does not wobble when you shake the pan. If you see that the custard is about to puff up into a ball, take it out from the oven immediately. Once it puffs up, the egg tart will wrinkle when it's cooled.

The egg tarts can be left at room temperature for about 1-2 days. Once refrigerated, the crust will turn harder.