Kristang egg tart: Portuguese pastel de nata adaptation

Ingredients

• For the shortcrust pastry
• 200 g plain flour
• 100 g unsalted butter, cold, cubed
• 30 g icing sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• For the custard filling
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 80 g caster sugar
• 250 ml coconut milk
• 1 tsp cornflour
• For the custard filling (optional)
• ¼ tsp pandan extract, use sparingly; produces pronounced flavour

Method

1. 1
   Rub the cold butter into the flour and icing sugar until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs, keeping the butter cold so the fat stays in distinct pieces rather than melting into the flour, which is what gives the baked shell its short, crumbling bite. Add the egg yolk and bring together into a firm dough — do not overwork, or the pastry will tighten and shrink back in the tin. Wrap and rest in the refrigerator until the dough is firm and cold to the touch.
2. 2
   Press the chilled dough evenly into small tart tins, covering the base and sides to a uniform thickness so no thin patch cooks through before the rest is set. Refrigerate the lined tins until the pastry is firm again — it must hold its shape without slumping when the custard is added, since any movement at that point will distort the walls and leave you with an uneven shell.
3. 3
   Whisk the eggs, sugar, and cornflour together until the sugar has dissolved and no dry streaks remain, then add the coconut milk and pandan extract and whisk until fully combined. Pass the custard through a fine sieve into a clean jug, discarding any solids, so that the surface of each tart sets to a clean, unbroken face rather than pitting around trapped specks. The strained liquid must be entirely smooth and lump-free.
4. 4
   Heat the oven to 200 °C. Fill each pastry case to three-quarters of its depth only, because the custard expands under heat and overfilling produces spillage that glues the tart to the tin and floods the caramel surface. The fill line must be visibly below the pastry rim.
5. 5
   This is where the dish lives or dies. Bake at 200 °C for 15–18 minutes until the custard develops characteristic light brown caramelised patches on its top surface and the pastry is golden at the edges — a uniformly pale surface signals insufficient heat, meaning the bitter-sweet caramel depth that defines the tart is absent and the custard flavour remains one-dimensional. Do not reduce the oven temperature.
6. 6
   Remove the tarts from the oven and leave them undisturbed in their tins until completely cold, because the custard is fragile while warm and will collapse if unmoulded too soon. The tart is ready to turn out when the custard feels set and firm through the base of the tin.