Egg Tarts ... Cheater's Version

When overseas, we always crave for home food. Egg tart is one of the food we miss. It's one food item which everyone in the family misses. Hence, when I saw this recipe (cheater's version) at Christine's, I was more than happy to give it a try!

I had baked these egg tarts a couple of times. The first time, I had used Filo Pastry. The egg custard  tasted good, but the base of the tart is a far cry from what we are used to having. It's kind of strange to have a "popiah" kind of bsase for an egg tart! Still, we are not overly picker eaters, so we were happy to have a taste of home.

One day, I had a leftover piece of puff pastry. I decided I should try baking egg tarts using puff pastry instead of filo pastry. Ok, the pastry puffed so much that the egg custard was hardly visible. But we definitely prefer the puff pastry base as compared to the filo base!


Ingredients for egg custard:

100ml     Whipping Cream
75ml       Milk @ room temperature
40g         Castor Sugar
2             Egg Yolks
2.5 tsp     Cake Flour

 

• In a saucepan, mix cream with milk. Add sugar.
• Under low heat, stir till sugar dissolves. 
• Let cool completely. 
• Stir in egg yolks and flour. Combine well.
• Drain through a sieve and set aside. 

Preparing the base with Puff Pastry :

• Thaw the puff pastry as per the instructions on the box.
• Cut into squares. 
• Using a rolling pin, flatten each square as much as you can.

• Place each "stretched" piece of puff pastry into the muffin pan.
• Make sure the pastry covers the rim, or the liquid custard will overflow and go under the pastry. 
• When done covering the muffin pan with the puff pastry, pour the egg custard mixture over.
• Fill each muffin hole to half or slightly more. 
• When overfilled, the custard will take a longer time to cook, and the pastry base may be burnt by the time the custard is baked. 

This recipe yields a soft custard centre. The egg custard goes very well with the soft, puffy base, and especially so when served warm. My boy saw me typing this post and asked me "When are you making egg tarts again?". Soon, my dear, when the heat wave is over. Mom is not even cooking in this heat! To bake in the tiny kitchen will be suicidal.

Love for Basketball

Hubby is a fan of the NBA Games. He will faithfully follow the games every season. So what is staying in the woods without a visit to the game centre to catch at least one NBA game? For this season, we could either catch the New York Knicks in Chicago (against the Chicago Bulls), or in Milwaukee, against the Milwaukee Bucks. Milwaukee is definitely nearer for us than Chicago. The thought of getting through the traffic mess in Chicago is enough to put us off, not to mention having to pay more for the tickets.

So off we went, on a Friday afternoon, immediately after picking the kids up from school. The kids were excited about going to watch a NBA LIVE game. The little one even said "I'm going to make a poster for the Milwaukee Bucks! I'm supporting the Bucks since Pa is supporting Knicks!".

Getting to Bradley Centre was not as bad as we thought, although there was a long line of cars trying to get into the car parks. I was very glad that Hubby had the foresight to purchase a parking coupon in advance. Even though we were there on time, the car park was almost filled. We had to go all the way to the topmost floor to park.

Hubby bought tickets for seats at the section behind the Knicks. Fans of Knicks were cheering loudly for their team throughout the game. It was a treat to be able to see the players and game up close! I had a great time watching the game, although a little disappointed with the way Knicks played. At half time,  we were all wowed by the cyclists and their amazing stunts. Very impressive. And my little boy was happily holding onto the free gift he received at the entrance throughout the game ... a Brandon Jennings Bobblehead.

A little fan of Bucks cheering for his team! We left a couple of seconds before the game ended. Knicks was playing so badly, that we knew there was no chance for extra time. In a way, it was good, as it was almost 10pm, and the kids were tired and sleepy. It was almost midnight when we arrived home. A tiring but memorial day for me and the kids, as this was our very first attendance at a NBA game =D