Chinese Egg Tart 蛋撻
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Easy Chinese egg tart recipe that recreates this Dim Sum classic from the comfort of your home.
Chinese Egg tart, aka Dan Tat 蛋撻 , is one of most recognizable pastry items offered at any Chinese Dim Sum restaurant (i.e. Chinese tea house) around the world.
Originated from Hong Kong, these British-influenced dessert egg tarts come filled with a slightly sweet egg custard resembled the texture of a properly made Chinese steamed egg.
And if you’ve ever been to a Dim Sum house, you know there is nothing better than finishing up the Cantonese tradition with a freshly out of the oven egg tart and wash down with your favorite tea.
Like many dishes developed in the past, these egg tarts have also evolved into many different varieties over time. The most basic and classic version is made of buttery pie crust. Another popular variety is a tart made with flaky puffy pastry shell. Last but not least, there is Macau’s Portuguese tart aka Po Tat which comes with this distinctive caramelized custard in a puffy pastry shell.
The recipe I am sharing today is the classic version with pie crust shell. This also happens to be the least time-consuming version (and to my own preference, the best version). If you follow this recipe in conjunction with the notes, you should be able to recreate egg tarts close to that of Dim Sum restaurant quality!
When time allows I’d also like to share a puffy pasty and Portuguese tart recipe so please do check back some time later or subscribe to my blog so you won’t miss any new recipes.
By the way, this recipe is part of my previously announced egg recipe series. If you’re looking for inspiration on how to cook eggs, please be sure to check out all the recipes I am posting in this egg series.
Before we begin, I’d like to share a few helpful tips to help you succeed:
- If you want to make these egg tarts first thing in the morning and serve as part of breakfast or brunch, you can pre-make both the pie crust dough and egg custard filling and store in the refrigerator overnight.
- For the pie crust dough, use cake flour for that light and crunchy texture. All purpose flour works too but it’ll produce a slightly denser texture.
- For the egg custard filling, use evaporated milk if possible. Evaporate milk will give you that ionic milky flavor similar to the ones from restaurants and bakeries. Otherwise whole milk works too but it lacks that deep milk flavor.
- Depending on the size of your tart shell or muffin tray, this recipe yields 8x 3′ tarts or x 2″ tarts.
Have you ever been a Chinese Dim Sum restaurant or Chinese bakery?
If so what’s your favorite Dim Sum Dish or Chinese bakery item? Let me know in the comments below!
Chinese Egg Tart
Yield: 8x 3' tarts or 11x 2' tarts
Prep Time: 30
Cook Time: 25
Total Time: 85 minutes (including 30 minutes of rest time)
Ingredients:
For Tart Crust:
- 100g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
- 25g powdered sugar
- 180g cake flour (AP flour works too - see note)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 large egg (only 2tbsp egg is used)
For Egg Custard Filling:
- 2 large eggs (~110g) + unused eggs from the crust ingredient
- 100ml evaporated milk (whole milk works too - see notes)
- 150ml water
- 55g/4tbsp sugar
Directions:
- If you want to make these egg tarts first thing in the morning and serve as part of breakfast or brunch, you can pre-make both the pie crust dough and egg custard filling and store in the refrigerator overnight.
- For the pie crust dough, use cake flour for that light and crunchy texture. All purpose flour works too but it'll produce a slightly denser texture.
- For the egg custard filling, use evaporated milk if possible. Evaporate milk will give you that ionic milky flavor similar to the ones from restaurants and bakeries. Otherwise whole milk works too but it lacks that deep milk flavor.
- Depending on the size of your tart shell or muffin tray, this recipe yields 8x 3' tarts or x 2" tarts.
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Thanks for the Chinese egg tart recipe.
http://www.fooddoz.com
Thanks for sharing the Egg tart recipe. My daughter first time tried to bake Egg tart using your recipe. It is so delicious and we really enjoy the yummy egg tarts.
dear yi ,
what is the different between bake egg tart and steam egg tart ( without oven ) , and which one is the best for egg tart .
best regard
hi there, sorry for the late reply. I have not made or had steamed egg tart before so I won’t be able to tell which one is better. From what I know, the baked version is more traditional and common. Hope this helps.
Hi Yi, thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I’ve tried THREE different egg tart recipes and this one has not only turned out the best, it was a grand success. My friends loved it so much and said it was just like store-bought traditional egg tarts! The recipe was also easy to follow, I’d definitely recommend it to others.
Some questions: do you have any tips on how to even out the crust as beautifully as yours? I’m not sure if it’s because my aluminum cups were too flimsy, but it took some time to even out the crust, and while baking, some custard flowed out of some tarts.
I also doubled the recipe but wasn’t sure how the “left over egg” part worked. I did 6 eggs and scooped up 4 tbsp of mix for the crust. Does it work that way? (I ended up with too much custard!)
Anyway, I must say this is a recipe I’ll be coming back to for sure so thank you once again!
Hi Rae, thanks for trying out the recipe and I am so glad that you enjoy these egg tarts. Yeah I do normally have some egg custard filling but it’s never significant. Are you using a 3″ tart shell or a 2″ tart shell? Mine is 3″ so the quantity usually works out. I don’t have any particular trick to make the tart crust smooth. I guess more practice = better crust? As for the overflow problem, just reduce the custard filling slightly and it should work.
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Do you know the receipe for the Oval Version of the Egg Tart?
hi Joyce, I have not tried making oval shaped egg tarts but I’d imagine there should be no difference to the regular recipe except you have to use oval shaped shell. Hope you get to try the recipe soon!
Came across this wonderful recipe and just tried the recipe yesterday! They were tasty, but I think I overbaked them – they got pretty puffy and deflated when I took them out of the oven. Will definitely try again!
Hi Alison, thank for the feedback. If the custard was really puffy, try lowering the heat a little bit see if that helps. Thanks for trying my recipe.
I prepared these overnight for breakfast this morning. My disposable tins were not deep enough to hold enough custard, or maybe I used too much dough in each tin (since the crust is my favorite part), but they were very good. I would definitely make them again and will try again tomorrow, as I have leftover custard. Thanks so much! =D
Hi there, thanks for the feedback.I am glad that you live the flavor and you’ll be making it again! Thanks for checking out my recipe.
Your post brings back such fond memories of sitting at a dim sum house in Vancouver, BC and ending our Sunday feast with a Dan Tat. They are likely my wife’s favorite, but I’ve never tried to make them. Your excellent tutorial makes it look very doable for me. I’ll have to give these a try. Thanks for sharing.
Hello Ron, thanks for stopping by. Yes I certainly miss going to Dim Sum restaurants due to the lockdown and it’ll be one of the first places to visit once New York is reopen. These tarts are really easier to make than they look so I hope you get to try them at home. Stay well!
Egg tarts are my favorite…and your look perfect, delicate and super tender…
Have a wonderful week ahead!
Your egg tarts looks awesome . Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for checking out the recipe.
This looks so delicious, Yi! I really miss egg tarts right now. and these pictures have me salivating. So you think it’s possible to do this in a muffin tray?
Hi Ana, yes muffin tray works. Just be mindful that if the tray is not non-stick, you might need to grease the tray before putting in the pie dough. Hope this helps 🙂
Awesome! So excited to try this because we have been missing egg tarts. Can’t wait to see the flaky shell version! Those are my favorite!
Do you need to grease the tart shell?
hi Cathleen, glad you enjoy egg tarts too. Yes I love puff pastry version as well. When I find the time it requires I’ll definitely post a recipe. Thanks.
What a wonderful dish! I’ve had these in restaurants but never made them. That will change! 🙂
Thanks John. Yeah these are popular items in Chinese dim sum restaurants and the good thing is that they aren’t that hard to make!
They are a favourite in our house! Haven’t baked them in a while…yours look perfectly smooth and yummy.
Thanks Angie. These are my little guilty pleasure 🙂