The Global Reader

Portuguese Egg Tarts 

(Makes 10 tarts for sure – I squeezed twelve out of this recipe, but they were on the small side)

I went full-on Slacker for this dessert, as you will see when you read the recipe. I was leaving for a week-long beach vacation the next day, and my brain had already shifted to island-level motivation. They did not end up looking very authentic, but let me emphasize the far more important point: they were AWESOME. There are plenty of more labor-intensive recipes out there – like this one.  I’ll be trying all sorts of variations…

Adapted from a recipe at Rasa Malaysia, which is a fantastic blog that you should check out immediately after you are done here.

(Original recipe: http://rasamalaysia.com/portuguese-egg-tarts/2/)

Ingredients:

•  1 frozen and rolled Pillsbury 9-inch pie crust
• 1/3 cup of sugar (you can use a bit less if you’d like your tarts a little less sweet)
• 1/3 cup of heavy whipping cream
• 1/3 cup of milk
• 3 drops of vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Butter and flour the muffin pan. (I use a baking spray)
2. Cut pie crust into 10 rounds. (I only had a biscuit cutter on hand so my rounds were smaller, and fluted. Not traditional at all, in any way. Also, you should have a rolling pin on hand, just in case you need to roll the remaining pie crust out to get your last couple of pieces.)
3. Use a hand, or stand, mixer to blend the last four ingredients together. Beat on a higher speed for about 3 minutes. (The original recipe says to strain the filling – I did not). Set aside.
4. Fit the pie crust rounds into muffin pans by pressing firmly on bottom and side (do not over stretch). Fill the pie crust dough with the egg mixture (about 80% full).
5. Bake at 400F for about 15-20 minutes or until the filling gets to be a dark golden brown. Most recipes call for a bit of broiling too for a caramelized top crust, but like I’ve said…I went lazy.