Today’s recipe is inspired by my love of egg tarts. Egg tarts are a classic Chinese bakery staple. It is the one item every Chinese bakery must have. I’ve been eating egg tarts my whole life. I pretty much ate egg tarts since childhood. The bakeries along the streets of Brooklyn where I grew up would serve up egg tarts to customers throughout the day—especially in the mornings. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, you can bet my family and I are waiting in line at one of the local bakeries to pick up some egg tarts, char siu bao, and dim sum. I’m especially excited to eat some egg tarts at some point during my trip to Brooklyn during the holidays this year. Over the weekend, while I was preparing sugar cookie dough to bake and decorate, I also prepared some egg custard pudding and a batch of my pie crust cookies. My egg custard pudding and pie crust cookies are very loosely inspired by the different components of an egg tart. The flavor and texture of my egg custard pudding served with pie crust cookies remind me very much of the filling and crust of an egg tart. Pudding is actually a very easy dessert to make. In its most basic form, it has eggs, milk, and sugar. Cornstarch is added as a way to thicken up the pudding. To give my pudding a hint of vanilla flavor, I decided to add some vanilla extract. When I was done making the pudding, I poured the pudding into little glass jars to chill in the refrigerator. The texture of this deconstructed egg tart dessert definitely reminded me of a cross between an egg tart and the snack sized pudding cups I ate growing up. I saved a little jar of egg custard pudding and pie crust cookie to eat later in the week for dessert when I have another egg tart craving.
For the Egg Custard Pudding:
· 2 large eggs
· 2 large egg yolks
· 1½ cups whole milk
· ½ cup fine sugar
· 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
· Corn starch slurry (2 tablespoons of cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water)
Directions:
1) In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and egg yolks. Set aside.
2) Heat a pot on medium-low heat. Add the milk and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar into the milk. Once the mixture is warm, add the vanilla extract. Turn the heat down to low.
3) Add about ¼ cup of the warm mixture from the pot into the large bowl with the whisked eggs. Whisk quickly to make sure the eggs do not scramble. This helps temper the egg mixture so when the egg mixture is poured into the pot, the eggs won’t scramble.
4) Slowly pour the tempered egg mixture into the pot with the milk and sugar. Whisk to ensure all ingredients are combined. Add the vanilla extract and corn starch slurry. Keep whisking until the mixture is thickened.
5) Pour the pudding into glass jars. Chill the pudding in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before serving.
For the Pie Crust Cookies:
· 1½ cups all-purpose flour
· ½ teaspoon baking soda
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¼ cup granulated sugar
· ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cubed
· 1 large egg
· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
· Confectioners’ sugar, for rolling out dough
Directions:
1) To make the pie crust cookie dough, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a food processor. Pulse for 2-3 seconds. Add the unsalted butter. Pulse for 5-7 seconds. Add in the egg and vanilla extract. Pulse until the dough comes together, about 8-10 seconds. Pour the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Form into a large disc. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let the dough chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour before rolling out the dough.
2) After an hour has passed, preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
3) When you are ready to use the dough, remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it sit for 10 minutes before using. Lightly dust your work surface with confectioners’ sugar. Roll out the dough until the dough is about ¼ inch thick. Using cookie cutters of your choice, cut out the cookie dough into different cookie shapes. Place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Leave about ½ inch space between the cookies. Bake cookies in the oven for 12-15 minutes.
Takeaways: The pie crust cookie dough can be made the evening before and stored in the refrigerator overnight. This type of cookie is flaky, buttery, and lightly sweetened. When serving the pie crust cookies, you can crumble the cookies on top of the egg custard pudding (so it resembles an egg tart) or serve the cookies alongside the pudding.