PORTUGUESE EGG TART

We are talking about the famous egg tart from Macau....Yup...yup....the crunchy shell mixed together with the softness egg curd just brought back those romantic scene at Ruins of St. Paul's.....*haaaa....if you know what I mean, so you watched F4 movie :)*.

I ate and tasted this famous egg tart when I visited Macau two years ago. Macau is an Asian Las Vegas with those casinos and clubs everywhere, and the city looked 'alive' at night and nothing special at daytime.

Since Macau was under Portuguese before don't be surprised with their portuguese name on the road also some building was portuguese-look-alike tho the local people there are speaking Mandarin *or hokkian language*. But don't worry, some of them can speak English as well.

Well, if you visit Macau, you should go to Senado Square where that place becomes a tourist place, not only for shopping but also for the 'museum'. You'll find Ruins of St. Paul's there and other old buildings which were built by Portuguese at that time.

I tried to make portuguese egg tart at home, just wondering will my hubby like it? Of cos he like it because egg tart is sweet :), tho I used Splenda we still taste the sweetness on the curd.

It is different from 'tart susu' *Indonesian egg tart I guess*. I used pie crust recipe for the shell, and I got the egg curd recipe from here.

Shall we try now? ;)



Portuguese Egg Tart
Yield: 17 pieces (standard muffin pan)

Ingredients:
For Crust:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
4 to 8 Tbsp ice water

For Egg Curd:
10 egg yolks
2/3 cup of sugar
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
2/3 cup of milk
1 tsp of vanilla extract

Directions:
Egg Curd:
Use a mixer, blend egg yolks, sugar, heavy whipping cream and milk until thoroughly blended.
In a separate bowl, put a strainer over the bowl. Strain the egg mixture with a strainer and mix in vanilla extract. Ready to use. (keep it in the refrigerator if you don't want to use it immediately)

Pie Crust:
Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a bowl; toss it with a pastry cutter. Add butter and toss it again, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with pea size pieces of butter. Add ice water 1 Tbsp at a time, tossing until mixture just begins to clump together. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it's ready. If the dough doesn't hold together, add a little more water and toss again.

Remove dough from bowl and place in a mound on a clean surface. Gently shape into a disc. Knead the dough just enough to form the disc, do not over-knead. You should be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. These small chunks of butter are what will allow the resulting crust to be flaky. Sprinkle a little flour around the discs. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour, and up to 2 days.

Preheat oven to 400`F and grease muffin pan, set aside.

Remove one crust disk from the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes in order to soften just enough to make rolling out a bit easier. On a floured surface, roll the dough and cut it into 17 balls. Flatten the balls into small rounds and fit them well into the muffin pan by pressing firmly on bottom and side (do not over stretch). Fill the pie crust dough with the egg mixture (about 80% full).

Bake the Portuguese Egg Tarts at 400F for about 15-20 minutes or until the filling turn brown. Enjoy!