Cantonese Egg Tarts II 港式蛋挞

Over the years, I've made egg tarts on few occasions. The result mostly looked rough and rustic but this time these tarts look  like the real deal! That said, am still trying to achieve a melt in the mouth lighter crust. Mine have slight chewy tart shell. I'll have to work on my short crust pastry technique. However, the filling is exactly what I'm looking for.

Cantonese Egg Tarts

serves : 12-15 tarts

I have halved the recipe from Guai Shu Shu

Ingredients

For tart shells 

1 egg (lightly beaten) 

220 grams of plain flour (sifted) 

40 grams of icing sugar (sifted) 

100 grams of chilled butter (cut into cubes) 

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence (optional) 

For egg custard filling   

220 grams of fresh milk 

75 grams of castor sugar 

2 eggs 

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence (optional) 

Pre-heat the oven to 180°c

In a big mixing bowl, put butter cubes and sifted plain flour together. Use the finger tips to rub the butter cubes and flours together until it become crumby. Add in sifted icing sugars and continue to rub until well mix.

Add lightly beaten eggs and vanilla essence, mix slowly until it become a dough. Put it in the fridge to chill for 20-30 minutes. Note that if you are able to handle soft dough, you can by pass this step. Take the dough from the fridge and use a rolling pin to roll it into a flat sheet with about 0.5 cm thickness.

Use a round cutter to cut about the size of the mould.  Note that this step is optional and will help you to roughly gauge the amount of dough required and you still need to adjust the quantity of dough as you progress.  Use your hand to press the dough against the sides and make it as even as possible. Use a knife or anything sharp to cut off the sides. If preferred, use a fork to lightly make some holes to let any trapped air to escape.  However, this step of making hole is optional. Set aside for later use.

For crispier crust, bake the tart shell in the pre-heated oven of 180 degree Celsius for 10 minutes. However, this step is also optional. 

For filling :-
In a microwavable bowl or mug, heat the milk until boiling hot (if you do not have a microwave oven, just heat the milk over the stove). Set aside for the next step. 

In a big mixing bowl, put egg, sugar and vanilla essence. Use a hand whisk to beat until well mixed. Pour the hot milk to the mixture and use a sift to sieve the custard mixture. 

Pour the custard mixture to the pre-baked tart shells. 
  
Bake the egg tarts in the pre-heated oven of 180˙c for 10-15 minutes. Once the tarts starts to puff up a bit, open the oven door, leave the door ajar and continue to bake the tarts for another 5 –8 minutes. A tart is considered as baked when a toothpick inserted in the centre of the tart, the toothpick stands upright. The tarts is best served warm when the custard is still soft and crust crispy.

Baked spring rolls

On Chinese New Year, my family would make spring rolls; a favourite of mine because I love fried foods. Chinese spring rolls as far as my knowledge goes, is deep fried. The spring roll wrappers could be bought at the wet market or the frozen section of the super/hyper market. These wrappers are moist and must be kept moist until ready to use unlike the dry rice wrappers for the Vietnamese spring rolls.
For this occasion, since the Chinese spring roll wrappers are not available to me, I've used the Vietnamese dried type. Filling for spring rolls for me growing up only consisted of carrots,jicama, dried shrimp stir fried. I've noticed many add mince meat but. that is completely up to you. Just make sure the fillings are not too wet.
Once stir fried vegetable and meat have been cooled. Pre-heat oven at 180°c.
Soak Vietnamese spring roll wrapper one wrapper at a time in cold water, lay flat and fill it up with filling. wrap. brush with cooking oil. place on baking tray with parchment paper. Repeat process until fillings is finish. Once wrapping done, sprinkle sesame seeds on top of each spring roll. Place in oven and bake for 15 mins. check if the skin is crispy. if it is, then it is done. Otherwise, keep baking until skin is crisp.
serve hot with any Asian dipping sauce of your choice.

Hungarian Steamed Buns { Gőzgombóc }

Going forward, I'll switch to this Hungarian steamed buns recipe when making Chinese steamed buns. Unlike my previous chinese recipes, this produced buns which were so light and fluffy! It has to be said that they are best eaten hot out of the steamer. If you do have left over, then re-steam for short few minutes to soften it again.

Gőzgombóc

serves : 6 pcs.

You must go to the source for a detailed pictorial at Aprosef

Ingredients :-

Dumpling

250gm Flour

15gm yeast

20gm sugar

1 gm salt

1/2 egg yolk

1/2 egg (size “m”)

125ml Milk (2.8%)

10gm butter

1 lemon zest

Stuffing

60gm plum jam, thick divided into 6

To serve with

egg custard

ground poppy seeds

Preparation :-

1. Mix all ingredients for dumplings, knead until a smooth round shape. Place shaped dough in a greased bowl. Grease also the top of dough. Coer with cling film. Let it rest at warm place for 60 mins. Or until size doubled.
2. Once dough doubled in size, roll out and divide into 6 smaller balls. Use you hand flatten it a bit and wrapped in the portioned jam. Take note the jam should be stuffed in centre to avoid leakage. Close dough by pinching it. Shape into nice round.
3. Set aside the stuffed dough. Cover with cling film. Meanwhile set the steamer and when water is boiling. Steam dough on high heat for 15 mins.
4. Serve with custard and sprinkle with ground poppy seeds.

Cantonese egg tarts { 蛋挞 }

Egg Tarts is a popular dessert amongst the Cantonese community. The tart shell should be flaky and light while the egg custard silky smooth. As you can see from mine, it is neither :D. I'm still in the process of refining my technique. The reason I'm posting here is to note down the recipes that I've followed.
 
Cantonese Egg Tart { 蛋挞 }
For the tart shells, recipe from Anncoo Journal

125g Cold butter - cut to cubes

120g Icing sugar, sifted

1 Egg

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

320g Plain flour - sifted

• Cream butter and icing until light and fluffy. Add in egg and mix well.
• Pour in flour and mix for few seconds, stop machine.
• Use a rubber spatula to fold the flour mixture into a soft dough.
• Put soft dough in a plastic bag and chill in the fridge for 30 mins or freezer for 20 mins.
• Divide the pastry into 15 small balls and evenly press into 15 tart moulds. If you find the pastry is too soft and sticky, just return it to the fridge to harden a little.
• Prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork to allow steam to escape as the shell bakes.
• Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 10 minutes or until lightly brown. Remove from oven and leave to cool.

For the filling , recipe from Yummy Bakes
200g boiling water

150g sugar

5 eggs

250g fresh milk

1. Dissolve sugar in boiling water, let it cool, add egg and fresh milk.  Do not beat, just stir and mix.
2. Strain the mixture and pour into the pre-baked tart shells  Bake at 180C for 20 mins or until cooked.

Steamed pumpkin cake

This traditional steamed cake is normally flavoured with yam; which is not easily available to me. Imagine my joy when I found out that it works with pumpkin as well.

Steamed Pumpkin Cake 
via Babe in the city KL
 
Ingredients :-
4 tbsp oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped
6 shallots, chopped
60 g dried prawns, soaked, rinsed and roughly chopped **substitute w anchovy paste 1 pair Chinese sausages, diced **didn't add
200 g minced pork meat ** didn't add
800 g pumpkin, seeded with skin removed will yield about 600 g, coarsely grated
Salt and ground white pepper to taste
Batter (mix them together):-
300 g rice flour
60 g tapioca flour
1 litre water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
Garnishing:
Spring onion, chopped
Fried shallots
  Preparation :- In a fairly large pan or wok, heat oil and fry up chopped garlic and shallots till soft and fragrant. Add dried prawns and continue to stir fry till fragrant. Next add in sausages and minced meat. Stir fry until meat is cooked and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Give the batter a stir before pouring into the stir fried mixture together with the grated pumpkin. Add in salt and pepper. Keep stirring until batter became thick. Taste and adjust seasonings. Turn off the heat.
Pour mixture into a 22 cm square or even round tray. Even the surface with the back of a spoon or spatula. Steam on high heat for about 45 minutes. The surface should be quite firm. Remove and leave to cool completely.
Garnish the cake by scattering chopped spring onion and fried shallots on the surface before slicing. Serve with garlic chilli sauce.

Home-made pot stickers { Gyōza } { 餃子}

 

I've halved the following recipe which yield 20 wrappers

Gyoza Wrapper Recipe

via justonecookbook

Author: Namiko Chen

Serves: 42-44 wrappers (thin wrappers)

Ingredients

240gm plain flour

½ tsp. salt

120 ml just-boiled water plus more if necessary (should be around 120 - 150 ml)

You will also need:

Potato starch (corn starch) for dusting
3" (8 cm) cookie cutter

While for the filling, I've just followed a rough guide from this video.

Savoury Chinese 5-spice doughnut { Ham chim paeng }

Deep-fried savoury doughnut is typical hawker fare back home; which is usually consumed in the morning or during tea.time. To make this deep-fried savoury doughnuts at home has been on my to-try list for the longest time! I'm so glad that it has been crossed-off from the list.
Please visit My Kitchen Snippets for the recipe.

Chinese Laughing Dumplings (笑口棗)

Don't they look mouth-watering? Thanks Do what I like for sharing this wonderful recipe. Taste wise is as good as the ones I usually get during dim sum breakfast or sunday market..light, crunchy on the outside, soft inside with a hint of sweetness!
Only thing to be aware of is the temprature of the oil when frying the dumplings. Do ensure oil is not too hot or dumplings and sesame seeds would burnt rather quickly. .
 
Chinese Laughing Dumplings (笑口棗)
click here for recipe.


Ingredients: (18 pieces)
90g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
40g sugar
1.5 tsp melted shortening (I used Crisco)
3 tbsp cold water
White sesame seeds for coating

Method:
1. Sieve flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Stir in sugar.
2. Add in the melted shortening and water, mix to form a soft dough.
3. Rest dough for 30 minutes.
4. Divide dough into 10g pieces and shape it into round balls.
5. Wet the round dough balls with water and coat it with white sesame seeds.
6. Deep fry coated dough balls in oil, turning the dumplings with a ladle till golden brown.
7. Use absorbent kitchen paper towel to get rid of excess oil.
8. Cool before storing in an air-tight container.

Notes:1. Oil should not be too hot while you slide in the dough balls, otherwise the sesame seeds will get all burnt out. Increase the heat after you have slided in the dough balls. An easy snack to do but you have to control of the heat while deep frying. Would advise you to fry 2 at time until you get the rhythm of the heat control.
2. If you like the dumplings to be of larger size, you can increase the dough balls to 13g each.
3. Floured your hands if you find the dough a little sticky to handle.