Sweets and Pastries

Our family loves flaky egg tarts, so I will store some frozen egg tart shells in my freezer in case we would have cravings as I am too preoccupied usually to make it from scratch. Aside from that, making the dough in a very hot weather like Singapore would be quite a challenge. The last time I made it was several years ago. I was too happy with the outcome and had the photo printed in a canvas which I hung on my wall (LOL). That was my first flaky egg tart made from scratch. The recipe I used to make these egg tarts is the same one I used years ago. It was adapted from 台湾的杜佳颖老师.

Her recipe is very good, though I slightly reduced the amount of sugar added.

Ingredients

14 pieces frozen egg tart shell
80g egg yolk
60g sugar
125g milk
250g whipping cream

Note : You may use puff pastry in case frozen egg tart is not available in your country. Use a ring cutter a little bigger than your aluminium cups or muffin tray, and gently mould it in. Avoid twisting the cutter when cutting the pastry or it will seal the edges of the tart. The puff pastry has to be thawed in your refrigerator prior to using. You also need to poke holes on the pastry using fork, not just the bottom but also the sides.

Method

Preheat the oven at 230 degree celsius
Lightly simmer the milk until all the sugar are melted. Do not boil. Take off from the heat. Add in the cream, set aside.
Whisk the egg yolk well and mix it into the liquid mixture. Whisk until all are well combined
Sieve the mixture. This will ensure that you will have a smooth custard.
Fill in the tart mould
Bake for about 20 minutes. Turn the tray after 10 minutes. The burnt parts on top will automatically occur during baking.

I personally love both milk tea and chiffon cakes; I think most Asians do. So the other day I had an idea to combine these two into one delightful treat. Lying in my pantry were my Aik Cheong 2-in-1 milk tea packets, which I immediately thought of incorporating into the Chiffon cake. I was not disappointed! The taste was absolutely heavenly with the sweet notes of milk Tea pairing perfectly with the soft spongy texture iconic of chiffon cakes. The resulting treat was so good that even my youngest son who, unlike me, is not into chiffon cakes and milk tea had devoured half of the cake in a day! The other half was split among the three of us – my eldest son, my husband and I. They all had requested for me to make it again the next day. So the pictures on this post was actually from the second bake that I did two days later.

Ingredients (batter)

80g cake flour
4g baking powder
50g fine sugar
4 egg yolk (75g)
70g melted butter
110g milk
4 packs 2 in 1 milk tea (I used Aik Cheong brand, each pack is 25g)

Ingredients (meringue)

5 egg white (200g)
4g lemon juice = 1 tsp
100g fine sugar

Chiffon Tin size = 21cm in diameter , 11 cm in height. The bottom has to be lined with baking paper

Before starting ensure that your mixing bowl and balloon whisk are free from oil or any grease. Furthermore ensure that both yolk and egg whites are FULLY separated, especially for the egg whites which should not have ANY traces of egg yolk as this would affect your meringue later.

Method

Preheat your oven at 180 degree celsius.
Melt the butter and set aside.
Sift the flour and baking powder together and set aside.
Heat up the milk until slightly boiling, turn off the heat, and add the packets of milk tea one at a time. Ensure that all of the packet’s contents are dissolved completely before adding in the next pack.
Add the sugar, mix until everything is well incorporated, then add the melted butter. Mix until all combined.
Pour the mixture into the bowl with the yolk . The bowl has to be big enough for you to incorporate the meringue later. Stir well to combine. Add in the flour mixture in 2 batches, stir and combine. Set aside the batter.
In the mixer, beat your egg white until foamy at medium speed, add in the lemon juice. beat for about 30 seconds and start adding the 100g sugar in 4 batches. As the foam thickens, turn up the mixer speed. Continue beating until the meringue reaches stiff peak (please refer to the picture below). You will see that the mixture will become glossy. Do not over beat as it will dry out the meringue. If you are not familiar with making meringue, I would advise you to check the mixture every 20-30 seconds after it reaches the soft peak stage.
Gently fold the meringue into the batter using a spatula. Do it in 3 batches. Ensure that all the meringue are incorporated fully into the batter. Do not over mix as it will deflate the air, making your cake dense.
Pour it into your chiffon tin, give the tin three or so gentle taps on the table surface to let larger air bubbles rise to the surface and pop. Bake it at 180 degree celsius for 12 minutes.
Use a knife and make a few slits on top, this is to prevent wild break on your cake, however this is just for aesthetic reasons so it is optional. In the past, people did not do this step at all. So if you don’t want to do it, it is fine, just skip this step.
Lower down the temperature to 160 degree celsius, and bake for 30-35 minutes more, or when the skewer inserted into the middle of the cake is dry. The timing is just a guideline as each oven works differently.
Invert the pan upside down and let it cool down completely before slicing.