Hong Kong Flaky Egg Tarts 酥皮蛋塔

I have been eyeing Lena's flaky egg tarts since she posted it many months ago, her egg tarts was so gorgeous and the tart is close to the restaurant standard in term of the taste of filling as well as the flakiness of the crust. It is delicious! Thanks Lena from Frozen Wings for the beautiful recipe. This recipe is a sure keeper!

As you know, my current rented place oven is not working well, once turn on the oven, lot of carbon crumble dropping down from the hot grill. As I'm so desparate to make the egg tarts for Gabriel, I leap into this recipe and make it the open ceremony of my first baking journey in Melbourne. There was obstacle in the begining, beside need to tackle the issue on oven, I couldn't locate the shortening! My first batch of egg tarts came out using butter and oil instead of shortening and the crust was...a bit hard, not flaky enough. It got layers but is not the perfect crust texture. Then after asking around and google about it, I found the vegetable shortening which we Asian usually keep on the shelves they Aussie kept it in the fridge!! It is with the brand Copha, they treated it like butter, so it is found on the fridge section in Coles! Initially I still wonder whether this is the same stuff as what I usually used in Singapore, I leave the Copha on the table for two days and it is still in solid form like what we get in Singapore, haha.. it can be kept on shelves not in fridge! (note on 26 Mar 2013: the Copha became soften after a few days on the shelves, when press on it, the texture is pliable to work with)

For my bake, there is still room for improvement, I burnt the crust a bit, still need to familiar myself with the oven temperature.

Recipe adapted from Frozen Wings Original from Agnes Chang Dim Sum Series 2

Ingredients:
Water Dough:
230g high protein flour, sifted
10g custard powder, sifted
100g butter
4 tbsp castor sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
4-5 tbsp water

Oil dough:
150g plain flour, sifted
100g shortening

Filling:
240ml boiling water
120g castor sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp vinegar (helps to set the filling)

Method:
Filling: Add castor sugar into the boiling water, stir to dissolve the sugar and set aside to cool. After the liquid cool down, add in eggs, vanilla essence and vinegar. stir well and sieve the fillings, discard remaining egg whites in the strainer. Set aside for later use.

Water dough: Mix flour and custard powder together and rub in butter until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add in sugar, mix well and put in the egg and 4 tbsp of water, mix with hand until it forms into a dough. Knead the dough until it becomes a smooth dough. wrap the dough with cling wrap and leave it aside. (*I suggest place the dough in fridge not longer than 30 mins) 

Oil dough: Mix the flour and shortening until it comes together. Wrap the dough with cling wrap. Let dough rest for 10 mins.

To prepare the pastry you may hop over to Lena's blog to see her illustration.
Folding the pastry:
1. Flatten the water dough into a rectangle, flatten the oil dough into a smaller rectangle then water dough.
2. Place oil dough in the center of water dough and wrap the oil dough by lift one side of the water dough and fold up to 1/2 of it, lift another side of the water dough and seal up the fold.
3. Flatten the dough into a rectangle, fold one end of the dough up to 2/3 of the dough. fold the other end of the dough up on top of the folded dough.
4. Turn the dough 90 degree.
5. Flatten the dough once again and roll into a rectangle and repeat steps 3-5, 2 times. Let it rest for 30 mins.
6. Roll the pastry out into a big dough with thickness of 0.3cm. Use a round cutter to cut out the dough. Place the dough onto the lightly grease tart case, pressing the bottom and sides gently. When finish lining all the tarts, preheat the oven to 180C (for my oven as 200C, the crust will burn)
7. Pour the filling about 70% full and bake for 25-30 mins. The last 5-10 mins have to leave the oven door slightly ajar to get the smooth mirror filling.
(you may need to check your own oven temperature to get the best result)

Lovely flaky egg tart with a nice smooth filling! 

Gabriel gobbled two egg tarts after I finished snapping photos.