Egg Tarts

I love egg tarts.  In my opinion, they are the perfect dessert.  They are perfectly sweet with a savory pastry crust.  One bite and it immediately takes me back to childhood when I’m perusing Asian bakeries with my parents and getting a freshly baked egg tart to munch on.

In general, egg tarts fall into 2 categories – Portuguese-style and Hong Kong-style.  They’re both delicious, and I make both fairly often.  I honestly just flip flop between the two depending on what ingredients I happen to have in my kitchen.  The main difference between the two is Portuguese-style egg tarts are typically made with only the egg yolks and uses heavy cream as the dairy component.  The result is almost like a crème brûlée texture for the filling.  It is also very common for Portuguese egg tarts to have a caramelized top and the shell is typically made from a puff pastry.  The Hong Kong-style egg tarts use whole eggs and evaporated milk, and it typically uses a shortcrust pastry as the base.  The texture feels light and jello-like.  It tends to be slightly less sweet than Portuguese egg tarts.

I wanted to play with something that was the best of both worlds.  Since puff pastry are relatively time-consuming, I wanted to make a hybrid egg tart with a shortcrust pastry base and with the ingredients you likely have at home already.