Don't Be A Retart

I've never been good at pastries, or tarts.  In fact, I just started getting into baking; on a whim.
I've always considered myself more of a baker.  Needless to say I've come to do a little baking here and mostly cooking here and there.

Even when it came to my friends...Most of them preferred baking...I preferred cooking.  It wasn't really a competition just an 'ok you this' and an 'ok you do that'.  However it's always a good thing to grow and expand my branches of experience.  It doesn't quite help that I'm a sucker for freshly baked pastries as it is.

It's just a whole different ballpark to cooking as with baking you have to use exact measurements, weights, amounts, etc.   This is no different with making Asian Egg Tarts.

I played around with a recipe before conferring to my mom with her recipe.

The first batch I made made for a crusty crumbly crust.  Far too fragile and not at all the firmness that I was looking for.  The flavors were still there.  It just wasn't the same.

So I then went to my mom....As we all consider our mom's to be the best of the best in the kitchen in some form with at least one dish (in my case, I think my mom is great overall with her baking and cooking...But that's just me).  Love you mom!

It came to no surprise that her recipe came out superb.

My Mom's Taiwanese Egg Custard Recipe

Crust
3 oz cream cheese
1 stick margarine *I used a stick of butter instead*
1 cup flour

Filling
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar

For the crust mix in everything together and I used my hand to mix it into a fine slick dough.  I then took eyed out a piece of the crust and used my finger to pat out the shell.  Continue to do that with each individual piece until you are out of dough.

For the filling, mix the eggs and sugar.  Mix until sugar has dissolved and then add the milk.  Mix until all the ingredients have combined.  Fill in the shells with the filling until it's just below the crust.

I had extra filling, and by the time that I had run out of dough, I had run out of flour.  So I filled a small ceramic ramekin with the rest of the custard.  All done!

Since I had forgotten to ask my mom about the bake time and the temperature wasn't listed on the recipe.  I just assumed it would be 350 degrees F.   It took approximately half an hour for it to come out just right.


I will say that the key difference between the last recipe and my mom's was the cream cheese.  It made all the difference.

Now, while my mom's recipe doesn't have a lot of sugar in it...You are more than welcome to add more sugar to your taste.

Century Year Old Egg

Food for thought is no substitute for the real thing.  ~Walt Kelly

Growing up Taiwanese, my mother would make Congee, and with that she would have Pork Floss, Seitan and many other things.  While I loved the pork floss, the seitan and everything else.  I could not bring myself to even pick up the Century Year Old Egg.

My mother on the other hand, would pick it up happily and use her chopsticks to break it down into her congee.

Century Year Old Egg is simply a fermented egg which was brined in salts, calcium hydroxide, and sodium carbonate.  Now I have read that other people have complained of smells.  Which mine did not.  There was no lead involved in the making of the eggs that I had purchased.

When I had cut the egg into slices and I licked the knife (it wasn't a big one, and yes it is a safety hazard and no, I would not recommend others to do this at home)...My eyes widened in amazement that I actually liked them.....And no, I never really thought I would.

Every time I had seen them in the Asian markets...I would look at it and think...."Do I want this?  Do I have the gall to try this?  What if I don't like this?  What will I do with the extra eggs?"....As they came in packages.  I contemplated this over and over.

Now I'm glad I did try it.  Heck, I'm glad I actually like it.  Once one gets past the look of it...I say why not.  Go for it.

As it is I'm working on acquiring my taste to other foods....Because let's face it...Who doesn't like a challenge?

Other links about Century Year Old Egg:

Neatorama
Chinese Soup Lady
Seriouseats