Danta (蛋挞)- Chinese Egg Tart

Have pate sablee left over from this month’s Daring Bakers Orange Tian challenge? If you’re like me, then you only made two tians and have a good chunk of the buttery, flaky dough left over. For the past week, I’ve been experimenting between making lemon curd and whipped cream to some form of peanut butter filling. The lemon curd filling was actually pretty decent, but my favorite had to be the Chinese Egg Tart.

Danta, as they’re known in Chinese, are tiny pop-in your mouth bites of goodness that you see at dim sum. If you’re not up for the stomach wrenching chicken claws or stomach tripe at these dim sum meals, you can also find these tarts at any Asian bakery. I remember buying them TWENTY-FIVE CENTS when I was in elementary school. Nowadays, I’m lucky if I find one for $0.60! Most places have raised prices up to $0.80. But either way, they’re so good that I can never resist!

I was really surprised at how well the danta turned out. At first, it was a complete disappointment right out of the oven. But wait and let it chill, even cool in your fridge, and the difference is day and night. It’s like cheesecake. You can’t eat it right out of the even.

Danta (蛋挞)- Chinese Egg Tart
Adapted from Nibbledish

*Note that traditionally, the pastry crust is NOT a pate sablee, but I thought that it actually worked out well. All of the ingredients are actually the same, it’s just the proportions. For the original crust ingredients/recipe, check out the original recipe.

For the Pate Sablee (taken from Alain Ducasse):
2 medium-sized egg yolks at room temperature
Granulated sugar 6 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon; 2.8 oz; 80 grams
Vanilla extract ½ teaspoon
Unsalted butter ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons; 3.5 oz; 100 grams ice cold, cubed
Salt 1/3 teaspoon; 2 grams
All-purpose flour 1.5 cup + 2 tablespoons; 7 oz; 200 grams
Baking powder 1 teaspoon ; 4 grams

Directions:
Put the flour, baking powder, ice cold cubed butter and salt in a food processor fitted with a steel blade.

In a separate bowl, add the eggs yolks, vanilla extract and sugar and beat with a whisk until the mixture is pale. Pour the egg mixture in the food processor.

Process until the dough just comes together. If you find that the dough is still a little too crumbly to come together, add a couple drops of water and process again to form a homogenous ball of dough. Form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.

Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface until you obtain a ¼ inch thick circle.

Using a circular cookie cutter with a diameter greater than your tart shell mold, cut out circles of dough. The dough is extremely delicate so when you’re placing it into the tart shell, do so very gently. I can’t emphasize this enough. Impatience will get you cracks (which you can technically patch up with side pate sablee) but if you do it slowly, you shouldn’t have any issues.

Egg Custard Filling

400g milk (3.3 cups/825mL)
350g eggs (7 medium eggs/6 large eggs)
275g sugar (1.5 cups/375mL) [i used less, around 1 cup]
1 pinch of salt (1/8 teaspoon)

*I actually did not have milk and so I used cream and diluted it with water. It worked!

Pour all custard ingredients into a large pot and set over the LOWEST heat (temperature should not exceed 50ºC). Using a whisk, stir the egg custard in ONE direction (avoid making air bubbles) until the sugar has dissolved .
Sieve the custard through a strainer to get rid of any unwanted parts of the eggs . Let cool and set aside. Skim off any foam or solid particles once the custard has cooled. The mixture should be silky yellow.

Assembly Time!
Pour the custard into the tart shells (80% full).
Bake at 180ºC (350ºF) for 20 minutes .
To tell if they’re done, shake your muffin pan and the egg custard should be firm and jiggly like jello.
Cool for 30 minutes and gently lift them out with a butter knife.

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Photo du jour: “Car light, car bright”

I feel like I need to give an explanation. This photo is actually shot outside, in front of my garage, using my car lights as the only light source. It totally didn’t go the way I imagined, but, oh wells!

You should also check out:

• Semi-homemade angel food cake strawberry trifle
• Chocolate truffle tart
• Almond & walnut danish
• Five minute salty & nutty dark chocolate bark
• O clementine olive oil ice cream