hello! Hi everyone. Wesley here. Today we're diving back into our series dedicated to TV and film with a shot at the egg custard tart, "dan ta," or "pastel de nata" from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Those following along with this series may know that, although this is the first dish that we have done on from the Avatar animated series, we have now done a couple of dishes found in the Avatar animated universe. Some time ago we did the zhongzi sticky rice dumplings, as well as the sweet custard buns from The Legend of Korra. What I've always found interesting about diving into food from this series is that pretty much all of the food that you come across in this show is specifically cuisine that can travel easily, since the whole premise of both shows is that they are traveling across the four nations on top of a flying sky bison for pretty much the entirety of the both show. So! We come across lots of things like buns, baos, bamboo leaf wraps, and of course, egg custard tarts, which is neat.
For those unfamiliar, an egg custard is a pastry of Cantonese origin which (as you may have guessed) has significant influence from European baking in its use of a laminated butter pastry dough, filled with a custard made from egg and sweetened condensed milk. While the Cantonese "dan tat" (or "dan ta" in mandarin) that you'll commonly come across in Hong Kong would make use of a drier, more pie crust-like dough, today we're going to be making a flakier, more pastry-like tart of Portuguese origin, known as the pastel de nata. Hope you try it.
Yields 12
INGREDIENTS (dough)
150g AP flour
80ml cold water
2 g kosher salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (room temperature)
demerara sugar
INGREDIENTS (filling)
2 eggs
85ml sweetened condensed milk
150ml cold water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
PREP
COMBINE all of the filling ingredients, set aside
COMBINE the AP flour, kosher salt and 80ml cold water with chopsticks until a shaggy dough forms, then kneed by hand until a cohesive dough ball forms
ADD the dough to a liberally floured work surface, then roll out in a rectangle shape with a quarter turn after each roll until about 14 inches in diameter
ADD butter to 1/3 of the dough sheet, then fold like a pamphlet and repeat with the remaining third
ROLL the dough out and repeat until all of the butter is incorporated, then roll into a coil, wrap in plastic wrap, and set aside in the fridge for 30 minutes until rigid
SLICE into 1 inch pieces, then press into a greased cupcake pan using downward motion until the dough fully lines the cupcake mold
ON THE STOVE
ADD the filling to the molds until 3/4 full, then bake at 500F for 12-15 minutes until golden
TOP with demerara sugar and brulee until carmelized (optional)