Chinese Egg tart with a French twist

I definitely wasn't expecting good results for my first Chinese egg tart experiment, but I was in for a pleasant surprise.

I've googled different egg tart recipes, and there's so many different ways of making it, just as there are many types of egg tarts.

Some are almost like an egg orgy, using more eggs than the crème brûlée. Me being the prudent, health-conscious, stingy homemaker, I opted for one that uses the least number of eggs. I found this egg tart recipe among the stack of old recipes I brought back from Singapore, and its source is unknown. Whoever gave me that, I'm deeply grateful and happy to share. And it is extremely easy to make.

But being too lazy to experiment with a new crust altogether, and definitely not up to making a flaky crust, I've opted to use the French sweet pastry crust (pâte sucrée) by Christelle Le Ru. Even lazier, Rémi, the pastry maker helped me with making the dough the day before. So I just have to gather the egg mixture together, put everything in shape and voilah!

Chinese Egg Tarts with a French twist
Makes about 14

1 sweet pastry dough (pâte sucrée)

Sugar syrup:
200ml water
100g sugar
4 pandan leaves

Custard filling:
Sugar syrup above
2 eggs
50g milk (original recipe calls for evaporated milk, I uses normal milk, with 1 spoon of liquid cream for an extra boost)

Make the dough and chill for 15 minutes.

Press the pastry with your fingers over the base and sides of the prepared cup cake pastry tin. Prick all over with a fork and bake for 10 minutes at preheated oven of 200C.

Make sugar syrup by boiling all the ingredients together. Cover for 10 minutes and allow to cool before using. Remove the pandan leaves (it's possible to find frozen pandan leaves in Asian grocery stores, as how I do. They give the sugar syrup a tinge of very nice and essential fragrance).

For the egg custard filling, mix all ingredients together, including the sugar syrup. Use a strainer to get rid of the unwanted bits from the eggs. The mixture should be smooth and silky.

Pour the egg mixture into the already cooked pastry and bake at 160C for 20-25 minutes.

The egg tart filling should be soft and moist, yet not liquid. And yet not overcooked. So start watching the oven after 15 minutes. The egg custard should be a little puffed up when it jellies.

Original recipe asked for 1 drop of egg yellow colouring, but as I'm quite against food colourings, I omitted it and the natural colour of eggs looked great.