Bake, Eat & Be Happy: Longan Beancurd Tarts ~ A Light & Delicious Dessert

During one of the Xmas dinner last year, a friend of mine who also recent got into baking, was asking me about the egg tarts that I made. Her hubby loves egg tarts, she, however, prefers the less sinful counterpart ~ Beancurd Tarts.

That one was my first timing hearing about beancurd tarts.. And I thought.. that sounds like a wonderful idea since I love beancurd too! So I went online to Google a bit more info about this wonderful sounding dessert and realise this is actually quite a famous tart made popular by LE Cafe which is also famous for their pineapple tarts.. yeah.. I know I am a bit of a mountain tortoise here.. LOL!

I spent some time testing out the amount of gelatine for the beancurd to get the consistency I wanted and finally made this yummy dessert.

Tart shell recipe is the same as my egg tart post here.

This recipe made about 6 tarts.

Tart shells are baked in my Morris tabletop oven.

Ingredients:

For the Tart Shell
45g unsalted butter, softened
22g icing sugar
15g beaten egg
90g all purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt

For the Beancurd Filling
150ml non sweeten soya milk
1 tbsp icing sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract (can omit if preferred)
3/4 tsp gelatine powder
1 can of longan

*I used non sweeten soya milk because I prefer to adjust the sweetness level myself.
Normal sweeten soya milk can be used with which sugar should be omitted.

How to do:

1. Beat the egg and strain through the sieve. Weigh out 15g and set aside for later use. The rest of the egg can be used for eggwashing the tarts later.

2. Sift the flour and salt together and set aside for later use.

3. Cream the soften butter till it is smooth and pale yellow. I used hand whisk.

4. Add icing sugar and continue to cream till light and fluffy.

5. Add in the 15g egg and continue to mix till well combined.

6. Fold in the flour in 3 installments using a spatula till the mixture becomes a soft dough.

7. Shape the dough into a cylinder shape, wrap in cling wrap and place in the fridge for about 15 - 20min.

8. Remove the dough from the fridge and cut the dough into 6 equal portion.

9. Shape them into a ball and placed in the tart mould.

10. Press the dough ball in the center against the mould and push it up against the wall till its full height. After baking, the crust will expand slight above the mould and it is easier to remove from the mould.

11. Usr a fork to poke holes at the base of the tart shells. This is to prevent the base from rising during baking.

:: Poke holes at the shell base to prevent rising ::

15. Place them in a preheated oven and bake at 160 degree for 7min.

16. Take out from the oven and egg wash the tarts. The holes of the base will close up considerably after egg wash.
17. Put back into the oven and bake for another 5min or when the tart shells turn slightly brown.
18. Remove from oven, unmould once the moulds are slightly cooled down enough for hands to handle. Continue to let them cool on a metal rack.

:: Beautifully unmould tart shells ::

19. Mix the soya milk and icing sugar together.
20. Pour out about 50ml of the sweeten soya milk and sprinkle the gelatine powder on top. Let it sit for about 10min.
21. Stir to dissolve some of the gelatine powder, then and pour the mixture into a saucepan on low heat. Continue to stir till all the powder is dissolved.
22. Pour the rest of the soya milk and vanilla extract into the saucepan, stir will heating up till just before boil.
23. Pour the mixture through a sieve.
24. Place the tart shells on a flat plate or tray and put a longan in the center and pour the soya milk mixture into the tart shells.
25. Put into the fridge and chill for a few hours.

They are ready to serve once the beancurd is set.