Egg Tarts

I love egg tarts, but didn't have access to them when I was at uni. I tried several recipes and as usual, customised it to my preference. Try it, its really simple, and oh, so heavenly. And if you can't be bothered to make your own pastry, there's always Jus Roll's ready made frozen shortcrust pastry - just roll it out on icing sugar mixed with a bit of corn flour.

Ingredients:

Pastry:
200g flour
100g butter
a pinch of salt
75g sugar
1 egg yolk + 4 drops lemon juice
4 tbsp ice water + 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Filling:
2 fresh eggs
1 1/2 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 ounces sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven. 180 degrees

Mix salt with flour and sieve. Rub in butter to make breadcrumbs. Add in egg yolk and water and knead lightly. Form 2 balls, dust with flour, cover in a bowl and chill for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make filling by lightly beating 2 eggs and the remaining egg white, and then pour in milk, vanilla essence and and sugar. Stir carefully, making sure you don't form air bubbles*. Set aside.

Roll out dough and cut with pastry cutter and make tart shells. I don't have a rolling pin or a pastry cutter, so i just roll it into a ball and press it flat with my palms. Make it as thin as you can to accomodate as more filling. ^_^

Bake the shells for a few minutes (until its white, but not too baked) and then pour in the filling. This is to keep shells from getting soggy. Thats how you get nice flaky pastry that melts in your mouth.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until golden.

Take out the oven and let cool on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!