-
1
Preheat the oven to 200u00b0C. Use a oven thermometer if you are unsure if your oven is efficient. If using a fan-forced oven, reduce temperature to 180u00b0C.
-
2
Thaw the pack of frozen pastry.
-
3
Separate the egg yolks from whites and place the yolks in a large bowl.
-
4
Add 1/4 cup caster sugar.
-
5
Using a handheld whisk, whisk well to combine.
-
6
Add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Use the good stuff as flavours are very delicate in this recipe.
-
7
Whisk well to combine.
-
8
Add 1/2 cup of heavy cream. It's the thick stuff.
-
9
Add 1/2 cup of fresh whole milk. Whisk well to combine.
-
10
The mixture should be rather frothy by now. Strain the mixture through a sieve to remove the bubbles and rough egg or cream bits.
-
11
The mixture should look deliciously silky now. Set aside.
-
12
Grease a muffin pan with melted butter. I made jumbo sized tarts, so I used a 6 muffin pan.
-
13
The pastry should be thawed by now. The pastry usually come in sheets. Roll them up in a tight roll.
-
14
Divide and cut into 6 pieces for jumbo size tarts, or 10 pieces for regular tarts.
-
15
Place each piece of pastry in muffin pan, ensuring that the folded layers are sitting stacked. Using your fingers, press the pastry downwards into the pan without breaking the layers. These layers give us those hundreds of layers of flakey pastry later, so we don't want to break them.
-
16
Wet your fingers with some melted butter. Using your thumbs, press the pastry to fit the muffin cups. I like to make them about 2-3mm thick.
-
17
Here's what they look like when they are ready to be filled with the egg mixture.
-
18
Fill each pastry cup with the egg mixture till it's almost filled, but not fully.
-
19
The tarts are now ready to be baked.
-
20
Place the tarts in the oven for 20-25 mins for regular tarts, and 25-30mins for jumbo tarts. Watch the tarts.
-
21
The tarts should rise and form a very dark brown skin on the surface. That's expected. Leave them alone. Try not to open the oven door and do not attempt to cover the tarts with aluminium foil. That would ruin the appearance of the tarts later.
-
22
As you pull the tray of the oven, jiggle it a little. If the centre of the tarts look set, then they are done. If they look like they are still liquidy, leave it in the oven for a while longer.
-
23
When the tarts are done, leave them to cool for 15 mins in the pan. The tops of the tarts will sink and the brown skin will start to crack.
-
24
Gently transfer the tarts with a offset spatula on to a cookie rack to finish off the cooling process.
-
25
Start digging into one while they are fresh and warm!
