Portuguese Egg Tart Recipe Comparison 葡撻大比拼

Ever since I posted the Portuguese Egg Tart recipe a few weeks ago, I have been thinking how I can make improvements on it. After doing more searches and experiments with different recipes, baking temperatures, etc, I am very pleased with the final results.

All the tarts in the following experiment have been made using the same store bought puff pastry as the crust.

Recipe references: dimcookguide.com (with video); "The Birth of an Egg Tart" by Egg Tart King ( "一個蛋撻的誕生" 蛋撻王著)p.40-41; morethanbread.net Portuguese Egg Tart




1) dimcookguide recipe: 2 egg yolks, 60g milk, 30g sugar and 60g heavy cream, bake at 350F, 20 mins
2) Egg Tart King recipe: 2 whole eggs, 60g milk, 280g water, 30g sugar and 5g heavy cream, bake at 446F, 18 minutes
3) morethanbread recipe: 2 egg yolks, 260g milk, 60g sugar and 60g heavy cream, 1 tbsp cornstarch, cook to thicken, bake at 485F, 30 minutes
4) morethanbread recipe: 2 egg yolks, 260g milk, 60g sugar but without heavy cream, 1 tbsp cornstarch, cook to thicken, bake at 485F, 30 minutes

Results and observations:

1) dimcookguide: a few brown spots, custard wrinkled and shrank after cooling, crust puffed up more than the others
2) egg tart king: watery custard, pale, custard sank significantly, turning concave
3) morethanbread recipe with heavy cream: good brown spots, crispy and thin crust with silky custard
4) morethanbread recipe without heavy cream: no significant difference compared to 3)

Conclusion:

1) Baking temperature: Portuguese egg tarts have to be baked at a high temperature for those iconic burnt spots or splotches to appear. The high temperature also prevents the crust from puffing too much (as seen in the dimcookguide recipe).

2) Ingredients in the custard: In order to prevent the custard from sinking after baking, the addition of cornstarch is essential because it has an stabilizing effect. Water is a no no in the recipe (as in all other pastry making) because it dilutes the custard. Egg yolk is preferred over whole eggs in making the custard. And as long as there is a lot of milk in the custard, cream may be omitted. The milk protein, casein, is what turns into the brown spots on top.