Hong Kong Style Egg Tarts (Dan Tat)

Are you looking for a quick and easy teatime treat or Chinese dim sum dessert?  Our EASY Hong Kong Style Egg Tarts have a creamy smooth custard filling but are made with a Portuguese style flaky crust. 

We use a store bought pre-made frozen puff pastry dough for a HUGE TIME SAVING hack. These little mini tarts are ready in about 30 minutes and have only 5 ingredients. Our puff pastry egg tarts are a delicious addition to these 10 Fun and Easy Chinese New Year Recipes. 

These mini custard tartlets are the BEST of both worlds. They have a Hong Kong style custard filling that is just lightly sweet but with a Portuguese or Macanese (Pasteis De Nata) style flaky buttery crust – creating a delectable pastry dessert without all the fuss.   

Do you know how to say egg tart (traditional -蛋撻 or simplified 蛋挞) in Chinese? = Egg Tart is pronounced as “Daan Taat” in Cantonese or “Dan tat” in Mandarin. “蛋” or “Dan” is egg in Chinese and “撻” or “挞” means tart or pastry. So, let's get started and make puff pastry egg tarts.  

Jump to:

• Ingredients 
• How to Make? 
• Hint for Success 
• Equipment Needed 
• Types of Egg Tarts 
• Best of Both Combined into One 
• Hong Kong History
• Macau History
• What to Serve with Chinese Dim Sum Desserts? 
• Frequent Asked Questions (FAQ’s) 
• Delicious Yum Cha Desserts
• Hong Kong Style Egg Tarts

Ingredients 

Eggs – If you want a more brilliant bright yellow orange yolk, be sure to use free range organic eggs.  

Evaporated milk – “unsweetened” canned condensed milk. This canned cow’s milk has been evaporated to reduce its water content.  

Puff Pastry Dough – store bought frozen puff pastry sheets save time.  These little pastry doughs are very convenient to have on hand. If you have extra sheets of puff pastry, be sure to try our Savory Bake Brie in Puff Pastry, Turkey Curry Puffs and Berry and Peach Pudding Tart. 

Sugar – You can use granulated sugar or a sugar alternative of choice.  

Vanilla – we used pure vanilla extract, but dried vanilla bean is also delicious in this egg tartlet recipe. 

How to Make? 

First things first! Thaw out store bought frozen puff pastry. You can do this several ways… 

• Take the box of puff pastry out of the freezer and place on kitchen counter at room temperature for 30-40 minutes. 

• Remove puff pastry from box and from inner packaging and place in the microwave covered with a towel and microwave for 1 minute. 

Next dissolve sugar in hot water and allow it to cool. We place it the freezer to speed up the process.

Prepare Puff Pastry

Do you have tart tins? If not, no worries.

We used a muffin pan or cupcake pan to make our Hong Kong Style Egg tarts. There is no need to go out and by specific little tart pans for this recipe. If you have the special tart tins, by all means use them. Don’t make a special trip to the store to buy new ones, if you do not have any. 

Roll out the puff pastry a little thinner. You will need 2 sheets of puff pastry to make 12 Chinese egg tarts. 

Spray your muffin pan with a little oil to prevent sticking. Now don’t laugh! We used a martini glass as a template to cut out round circles a bit larger than the muffin tin. Works like a charm.  

Place the cut-out store bought puff pastry round circles in each of the muffin tins. Then, pat around so that it comes up to the top and is flat on the bottom. Refrigerate the prepared tart tins while you make the egg custard.

Egg Custard Filling

Then, add the whole eggs to a medium bowl and beat the eggs.

Add the cooled sugar water, evaporated milk and vanilla to the eggs and whisk well. 

Strain the egg custard mixture through a fine sieve. This is a very important step so that it becomes super creamy! 

Pour egg custard into each of the puff pastry lined muffin tins up to 75% full. Do NOT fill any further as the custard will rise during the baking process.  

Do you see how the egg custard puffs up in the photo below? Bake for about 15 to 18 minutes or until the puff pastry crust is golden and the egg custard is set.  

Hint for Success 

• Strain your egg custard mixture with a fine mesh strainer BEFORE placing in the mini tart shells. This ensures that creamy texture. 
• Don’t over fill your tart shells with the egg custard or you will have a HUGE mess on your hands. You may have a little extra filling left over and that is okay. 
• In addition, do not over bake. Hong Kong egg tarts will be a little jiggly when you take them out of the oven. However, if you place a toothpick to check it should be able to stand up by itself. 
• There is no need to prebake your puff pastry tarts. Everything goes in the oven uncooked together.  
• Eat while warm.  
• Perfect sweet ending for dim sum, yum cha or Chinese New Year dinner. 

Equipment Needed 

Oven or toaster oven 

Muffin tins, cupcake tray or tartlet molds 

Fine mesh strainer – This is very important. If all you have is a colander, put a piece of cheesecloth inside to strain out the small lumps. Your goal is a very creamy tart.   

Types of Egg Tarts 

You may be wondering, is a Hong Kong Style egg tart better than a Portuguese style egg tart?  

As you can imagine, living in Hong Kong and visiting Macau many times, we’ve had our fair share of egg tarts.... Testing one right after the other. It’s a tough job but research is important! Right?  

Hong Kong Tarts 

• Less sweet compared to a Portuguese tart 
• Creamy filling because of the addition of evaporated milk 
• Does not have browned crisped egg filling but a pale-yellow custard 
• Traditionally made with a short crust dough 
• Not greasy 
• Uses the whole egg 

Portuguese or Macanese (Pasteis De Nata) 

• Sweeter than a Hong Kong style egg tart 
• Uses cream and milk, instead of evaporated milk 
• Has a scorched top after baking 
• Traditionally made with a puff pastry dough 
• A little on the greasy side due to the homemade puff pastry dough 
• Sometimes has a little addition of cinnamon 
• Uses only egg yolks 
• Sometimes has added lemon 

Best of Both Combined into One 

We decided to take our favorite parts of each egg tart and combine into one. 

These mini custard tarts are only lightly sweet with a Hong Kong (HK) style creamy custard but with a Portuguese style crust. Have you ever tried making shortbread crust from scratch? We have a time saver solution- use frozen pre-made puff pastry sheets instead of spending hours make a traditional shortbread pastry crust.

Hong Kong Style  

The Cantonese style custard is made with less sugar just like our recipe for Sweet Sticky Rice Chinese New Year Cake.  Did you know that Hong Kong egg tarts are made with evaporated milk instead of cream or milk? They are creamier but less sweet than the Portuguese egg tart. Traditionally made with a short crust dough.  

Portuguese Style 

Portuguese egg tarts have evolved from "pastéis de nata" a traditional Portuguese custard pastry that consists of custard in a creme brulee like consistency caramelized in a puff pastry case.  It was created more than 200 years ago by Catholic Sisters at Jeronimos Monastery. Usually, cinnamon spice will be added.  

Macau Style  

Traditional egg tarts from Macau are deliciously sweet but are kind of greasy from the buttery homemade puff pastry. Generally, they have a scorched top and are made similar to a Portuguese tart but slightly different taste profile.  

Hong Kong History

Egg Custard tarts (dan tats) were introduced in Hong Kong in the 1940s in Cha’ Chaan Tengs” - these are tea diners. These delicious pastry tarts were then introduced in western cafes, bakeries, dim sum restaurants and many people loved to eat them with Yum Cha. Yum Cha (today synonymous with dim sum) is a morning style or afternoon tea that includes small bites to eat.  

As you may already know, Hong Kong was a British colony from 1841 to 1941 and again from 1945 to 1997. Long before the show, “the Great British Bake Off”, the British influence on pastries, custards and desserts are well known. We think this is how the egg tarts started in Hong Kong.  

Macau History

Macau was under Portuguese rule for over 400 years until it returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1999.  Pastéis de nata were first introduced to Macau by Andrew Stow after a visit to Portugal. Stow returned to Macau and created his recipe for the Macau style egg tart. Then, he started up the popular Lord Stow’s Bakery in Macau.  

What to Serve with Chinese Dim Sum Desserts? 

Of course, hot tea (“cha” in Chinese) is delicious served with Chinese egg custard pies. Try our recipe for Tranquil Lemon Ginger Tea Recipe for a delicious dim sum dessert pairing. However, puerh, black tea and white teas are delicious too.  

Dim Sum is all about endless little dishes of small bites to go with tea. Have you tried our savory dim sum such as our  Chinese Eggplant with Galic Sauce, Tofu Veggie Pancakes, or our Spicy Pan-Fried Bao? 

Frequent Asked Questions (FAQ’s) 

Delicious Yum Cha Desserts

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