January 26, 2007
Portuguese Egg Tarts
Eat Portuguese Egg Tarts and lose 40 pounds in 2 months!
As Tigerfish pointed out, this Google Ad has been appearing in Rasa Malaysia’s website for the longest time. Eat her food and lose 40 pounds. Woohoo!
So I decided to make Rasa Malaysia’s famous Portuguese Egg Tarts.
I halved all the ingredient measurements cos I only made six, since this is my first attempt. You will notice I have many ‘first attempts’ here in my food blog. I am interested to try out new recipes, especially for food that is familiar to me. This is my new hobby.
Tigerfish, have you made yours yet? I know BuddingCook already made her Portuguese Egg Tarts for a Christmas party. And yes, this recipe is easy to follow and definitely a keeper.
Ok. Enough advertisement and pimping for Rasa Malaysia, just in case she floats to cloud nine and decides to stay there.
I realized I didn’t strain the filling through a strainer after beating the egg, which probably resulted in the little white bits on the custard mixture.
The Betty Crocker Pie Crust Mix has a crumbly flaky type of texture. The buttery taste was delightful! The kitchen and living room were filled with the sweet aroma of pastry when the tarts were almost done.
My new recipe attempts usually need to go through stringent QA testing before I let J eat them. So, two Portuguese Egg Tarts went to QA leaving me four to share with J.
For those of you who like to make pastry dough from scratch, here are a few pointers that I have gotten based on my research:
1. Baking is a science. Measure your ingredients carefully as too much flour makes a tough pastry; too much liquid gives a soggy dough; too much vegetable shortening / lard makes the dough greasy and crumbly.
2. To get a flaky, tender crust, handle the dough lightly by mixing the ingredients gently with a spatula. Kneading will cause excessive production of gluten which will make the pastry chewy and bread-like instead of light and flaky.
3. When handling dough, use your fingers instead of the palm of your hands as the fingers emit less heat than the palms.
4. When breaking down the butter or fats (vegetable shortening / lard), it’s ok to leave them in firm separate pieces, some fine and like crumbs, others the size of peas.
5. Water is used to bind the dough. As a rule of thumb, the flour, fat mixture should be moistened only to the point where it can form small balls that hold together when pressed with your fingers.
6. When rolling pastry dough, use a cool surface like a marble slab or a clean smooth countertop (I’ll line the counter top with plastic wrap and scatter some flour). DO NOT roll dough next to an oven or in a hot kitchen spot as this will cause the fats to melt.
7. If the dough becomes too soft during the rolling process, gently remove it from the work surface, slide a baking sheet below it and refrigerate it until it firms up.
I am going to make the second batch of this Portuguese Egg Tarts soon, using the remaining half packet of Betty Crocker Pie Crust Mix (I’ll make dough from scratch another day). I really think I can eat Portuguese Egg Tarts and lose 40 pounds in 2 months. Will you make them too?
Bite This!
More recipes:
Pineapple Tarts - Can I Bake To Save My Life?
Choux Pastry Puffs - Sim Can Bake, You Can Too!
Dim Sum For Christmas? Mayflower Seafood Restaurant!
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January 26th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Consider myself well pimped! I love it that you like the recipe and will make the rest instead of tossing the remaining ingredients into the trash can. They look fantabulous and I can smell the aroma, well, almost! :)
January 26th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Going to, going to…:D
Your egg tarts look so golden…must be good. From the look of it, why do you still need QA? Sure to pass!
January 26th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
RM - No trashing no trashing. The tarts were delicious and your instructions and ingredient measurements were idiot-proof!
Tiga! Sometimes I use QA as an excuse to eat more :p
January 26th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
I often get those ads too and I was wondering what kind of websites they would be. Because I am not allow to click on ads on my page as you know. Thanks for resolving my curiosity. ;)
Your egg tarts look so well baked with golden crispy edges.
January 26th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Oh, I thought that was a real ad. Your dishes look too yummy to able to eat them and lose 40 lbs in 2 months.
January 26th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
Hmm I will try if I get the time :-)
Maybe I shall put savoury fillings for it too if I make extra crust :-)
January 27th, 2007 at 3:18 am
sims, wow !!! the crust is so nicely browned, and the egg fillings looked really appetizing and the color is awesomeeeee :))) You’ve got great dedication doing this, love it :)
January 27th, 2007 at 7:27 am
Sue - I sometimes get ads on Amnesia and Tax Cuts!
DF - It’s a real Google Ad!
KM - I was thinking of making chicken pie with the same crust, but not sure if it’s OK to just make a round dough top as the cover!
MW - Haha! Thanks! That’s why I need idiot-proof recipes!
January 27th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
these look good. i need to make them again but i need a new muffin pan. :) i used silicon last time and they aren’t as browned.:D
January 27th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Hi Budding Cook, the result of my second time baking the tarts was even better. I had them in the oven for 25 mins (instead of the stated 15-20 mins) and they looked even more brown. And I realized that sifting the egg mixture makes the tarts look nicer becos sifting eliminates the bubbles created by the whisking of the egg mixture.
January 30th, 2007 at 12:18 am
Oooh, looks like my oven is super hot compared to yours and Budding Cook. One thing I notice about my oven is that things get brown very fast. In fact, I just tossed away a lot of burnt peanut butter cookies…:(
February 5th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
[…] I used the same Betty Crocker Pie Crust Mix that I had used for the Portuguese Egg Tarts (because I liked the flaky texture and not too buttery taste of this pie crust mix) and made this pie crust in the same way as the tarts. I did read about Pillsbury Pie Shells being used in some Chicken Pie Recipes, but those require a 9 inch diameter pie pan and I didn’t have that. […]