Happy New Year! And, Egg Custard Tarts

Happy New Year!

Ages and ages ago in Berkeley, my sister and I each bought a copy of this old school, from the 80’s, Chinese Snacks cookbook.  I forget which store carried it, but it seemed like such a great find we couldn’t pass it up and we obviously each needed our own copy. (We lived at the same apartment at the time.)  The idea seemed so great.  Make your own dim sum at home!  Turns out that dim sum is something really not something the home cook can whip up due to the complicated preparation and the sheer time it takes to churn out any kind of edible amount of bite sized goodness.  (Like that time my friends and I witnessed an entire room of super fast cooks wrapping Xiao Long Bao in a futile attempt to keep up with demands.)     

But oh, egg custard tarts!  As my friend Jen is fond of calling the most exemplary item in a category as its “king” (the King of Potato chips being salt and pepper Kettle Chips), I say egg custard tarts are the Princess of Dim Sum.  They’re fun, dainty, and sweet, and the hit of every dim sum outing.  In fact, I firmly uphold the belief that these treats are appropriate at any time during dim sum, not just as dessert!  The savory of the other dishes brings out the sweet goodness of the egg custard tarts, and vice versa!  Plus, these things go fast so if you don’t get them off the cart when the dim sum ladies come around, they might not be there later!

Therefore I couldn’t resist another attempt at making these (my favorite dim sum dish, not that that was a question).  I’m on attempt number 2 or 3 now; they seem like so much effort that I usually let several years lapse in between.  The crust is the hard part; many restaurants (second rate…sniff) will serve egg custard tarts in a shortbread style crust, which is the cheater way of doing it! 

A most suitable snack for all times of the day.

This recipe book provides excellent directions in Chinese and English, with step-by-step pictures on how to roll your crust properly; it takes two kinds of dough, one encased in the other, and a lot of folding.  I think it must be similar to puff pastry or croissants, to get that layering effect.  Also, the secret ingredient is lard.  I wasn’t able to find lard when I made this attempt, but I used shortening (and damn the health consequences) and the texture is finally approaching the desired flaky ideal!  I made this on a whim, so I didn’t have evaporated milk powder or any dairy for the egg custard, so that was a touch pale.  But I feel OK about that because my mom must’ve liked them; she went out and bought evaporated milk powder the next day. :)