Recipe: Portuguese Egg Tarts—Poh Taht

When I visited Macau  — part of the Republic of China — earlier this year, I was blown away by the Portuguese architecture and Chinese culture on the beautiful island. Equally mind-blowing were the Portuguese egg tarts  — soft and gooey from the middle and crispy from the outside — which were readily available on the streets of Macau.

I decided to find a recipe and make it when I got back home. This is an amazing recipe and I have cooked three batches of Poh Taht already!

Ingredients

Egg yolks 4

Cream 1/2 cup

Milk 1/2 cup

Vanilla essence 1/4 tsp

Cinnamon stick 1

Lemon zest 1/2 tsp

Cornflour 1 tbsp

Sugar 3 tbsp

Pinch of salt

Method

Utensils

Non-stick muffin tray, rolling pin, whisk

For the crust

Buy ½ kg puff pastry dough from your nearest bakery or grocery store

To make the filling

•  Place a saucepan on medium heat. Add half of both milk and cream in the pan and add cornflour. Whisk till properly mixed.

•  Now add sugar, salt and mix well.

•  Add the rest of the milk and cream, and the cinnamon and lemon zest.

•  Now add the egg yolks slowly into the mixture and keep beating with the whisk till milk thickens like thick custard. Take the mixture off the heat.

•  Add vanilla essence. Your egg custard is ready

•  Let it cool. You can keep this filling in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 days, covered with cling film.

Working with the dough

Working with puff pastry dough can be a nightmare. To make sure it’s cold enough to work with, refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

•  Dust the work surface with white flour and roll the dough into a rectangular ½ inch thick sheet.

•  Now roll up this sheet in a cylindrical shape with one-inch diameter. Wrap it in cling film and put it in the refrigerator to harden for 15 minutes.

•  Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 200^o C.

•  Cut 1-inch long cross-sections of the cylindrical dough with a knife.

•  Take one piece and put it in the muffin well. With your thumb, press the dough and pull it about 1/8 inch out of the muffin well. The dough should be uniformly thick all around — i.e. about 1/8 inch — to ensure that the pastry is cooked properly.

•  If the pastry gets hard to work with, pop it in the freezer for 15 minutes and try again.

•  Fill each muffin well with 1 tbsp of egg custard.

Baking

•  Fill the tray and slide it in the oven. Bake for about 20-25 minutes at  200^o C.

•  Once the tart starts turning golden brown from the top and the custard swells into a dome, turn on the top grill. Let it bake till the surface is dappled with brown marks.

•  Take the tarts out from the muffin wells.

•  Your Portuguese egg tarts are ready. Serve them warm.

Madiha Hamid is a digital media professional. She loves the food traditions unique to families. She is running a food blog for Pakistani and regional cuisines called cheflingtales.com

 

Follow her on twitter @cheflingtales.

Published in The Express Tribune, Ms T, December 9^th, 2012.

Like MsT on Facebook and follow at @TribmagMsT for your dose of girl talk