Baking: Hong Kong Style Egg Tarts

Yesterday was my husband’s birthday and well, he loves sweets so I made a last minute decision before heading off to work to make him Hong Kong style Egg Tarts.

He had been asking for them for a while and I had bought the mini tart shells before.  My only issue was that the normal recipe had one ingredient that I wanted to research to make sure that I could eat it also so I was actively looking for substitute.  It was why this has been delayed.  Normally, I’d make the tart shell also but I’ve made tart shells before and it is really painful to do at times. Honestly, I couldn’t be bothered with it.

Regardless, we are making Hong Kong Style Egg Tarts!

I got the recipe from Tasty.com and here’s their video:

I only used the filling part of the recipe but I did make a few changes.

The main thing is the ingredient I mentioned before: evaporated milk. Being lactose-intolerant is a big problem.  I read up a few alternatives.  One was to boil soy or almond milk (with a bigger quantity) to its desired amount.  The other was just to use a little more than half of the amount in the recipe.  Being the lazy person I am and being on a time crunch to leave for work, I chose option 2.  Scroll down to see whether it worked out!

AND, here’s how it looked before the oven and after it was done its 15 mins bake time!

Before

Fresh out of the oven!

FYI: The pie tarts were Tenderflake Mini Tart Shells. They come in packages of 12 which is exactly the amount this recipe needed.

Also, the straining is one of the most important steps of making Egg Tarts because it makes sure that there are no bubbles on top of the tart and gives it that smooth glossy finish just like store-bought ones.  I had to strain it two times so do it till you feel satisfied with the filling before you pour it in.

Apparently, the simple substitute works well.  The husband thought it tasted like what we had bought in Chinatown before. That is perfect because that also means I’ve found a way to revamp the recipe to make it work.  AND, further proves that many baked goods out there can work without dairy ingredients and yet, everyone insists on using it.  However, after giving them a go after work, I thought they were a little on the sweet side but still the texture is good.

Have you ever eaten Hong Kong Style Egg Tarts? What type of desserts do you like?