It’s Vesak Day and in my usual overscheduled way I decided to pack my day full to the brim (hey I work a full-time job – even time off is scheduled! Got up at the crack of dawn to go to do ward rounds, discovered that my good AC had already done them (thanks JL!) then trotted off to Jurong Bird Park with S and got my vitamin D’s worth (SUCH a hot day…). Had a late and somnolent lunch at Soup Restaurant then decided that I needed something sweet to end off. Egg tarts are dime a dozen in Chinese dim sum restaurants and they are literally everywhere in Singapore. But nothing beats a fresh egg tart straight out of the oven and it’s the perfect accompaniment for afternoon tea :-).

Hong Kong egg tarts are usually made with a shortcrust pastry as compared to Portuguese egg tarts which are usually made with puff pastry. Portuguese egg tarts also contain condensed milk and have a higher sugar content, and usually have a scorched and crinkly surface while Hong Kong egg tarts are almost mirror-like on the surface.

Doing the egg tarts was a surprisingly easy and quick process. The main hold up was trying to unearth the tart moulds from somewhere in my cupboards…which just tells me I should do tarts more often. Truth to tell I was never terribly good at doing regular tarts and having to do a flour-free low carb version intimidated me. But it turns out that it wasn’t too bad after all and the tarts got made in less than an hour. Two thumbs up for an easy afternoon project!

LOW CARB EGG TARTS

Ingredients

TART CRUST

2 cups almond flour

¼ teaspoon sea salt

1 tbsp sugar substitute (I use Splenda)

30 g cold butter

1 large egg

FILLING

1/2 cup sugar substitute

1 cup water

½ cup milk

3 eggs, beaten

1/2 tsp vanilla essence



The trick to a bubble-less filling that doesn’t puff up too much is to sieve the custard



Baking the last 5 minutes with the oven door cracked open slightly

Method

Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Place almond flour and salt and sugar substitute into blender and pulse briefly. Add butter and egg and pulse until mixture forms a ball. Press dough into tart moulds (about 12). My preferred method is to roll out the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper/plastic wrap, then cutting out circles with cookie cutter to fit into the tart mould. It looks a lot neater and prettier 😀 Bake the tart shells for 8 – 10 minutes, then remove from the oven. Combine sweetener and water into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook till dissolved, then cool down to room temperature. Strain the eggs through a fine sieve, then whisk in the sweetener mixture. Stir in milk and vanilla essence. Strain again and fill the tart shells till about 80 – 90% full. Bake for 10 – 12 min in the oven. Watch out for puffing of the filling as this may mean that the oven is too hot. Open the oven door slightly and bake for another 5 minutes. Test the custard’s doneness with a toothpick.