German Style Cheese Pudding Tart (德式乳酪布丁塔)

My kids love tarts, especially my elder daughter. Whenever we are at bakery stores (yes, I still buy bread and pastry even though I bake so often), she would choose tarts over bread or buns. So that is why I am always on the look out for good delicious tarts that are not too hard to whip up. Just over the weekend, I had some free time (thanks to my husband) and found a good one from Carol's site. It's call 德式乳酪布丁塔, loosely translate as German style Cheese Pudding Tarts.

This recipe incorporates both Parmesan and Cheddar Cheese into it, so it has a nice evident cheese taste in it, just right and not overpowering at all. I love it very much and so are my kids. In fact this is the first time I have this kind of sweet and savory taste tart, really delicious and unique. :))

These tarts have this distinct char look on the top of the cheese custard surface. However I am no fan of charred food, so I try to minimize the charring, lol! I will post my version of the recipe since I did make some modifications to it. But if you are interested in the original recipe and need to see more detail pictorial steps, pls refer back to Carol's site.

Ingredients for German Style Cheese Custard Tarts (makes about 4 or 5)

Pastry:

100g cake flour

30g confectioner's sugar

50g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 tbsp grated Parmesan Cheese

1 large egg yolk (Original calls for 2, one was suffice for mine)

1/4 tsp salt

• In a large mixing bowl. sift the cake flour and confectioner's sugar in. Add in the Parmesan Cheese and salt and mix in. Then knead in the cold cubed butter pieces using your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.
• Lastly add in the egg yolk and knead till everything comes together to form a soft pliable dough. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30mins before use.
• In the meantime, grease and dust with cake flour the tart shells and set aside.
• After 30 minutes, remove the chilled dough and divide it equally into 5 portions (4 if bigger tarts). Then press the dough portions into the prepared tart shells. Then chill in fridge until needed.

Cheese Custard Filling:

80ml fresh milk
2 slices of Kraft Cheddar Cheese
24g caster sugar
80ml dairy heavy cream
1 egg yolk + 1 whole egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 tbsp raisins soaked in warm water and drain after 10 minutes

• In a heat proof sauce pot, add in the milk, sugar and tear in the cheddar cheese. Place over medium low heat and stir constantly till the cheese and sugar melts and well combined. Remove from heat.
• In another bowl, beat the egg and egg yolk together and add in vanilla extract and the heavy cream and stir well.
• Slowly add the egg mixture into the warm milk mixture and mix well till well combined.
• Preheat oven to 180C.
• In the pastry tarts, place about 4 to 5 raisins at the base. Then distribute the custard filling equally among the 4 or 5 tart shells to about 85 to 90%.
• Bake the tarts in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes till the top is browned and doesn't wobble when shaken.
• Remove from oven and let cool completely before unmolding. You can glaze the surface with some warm fruit jam.

The pastry is buttery and cheesy, I love it! The custard filling is sweet, savory and cheesy cream texture, yum yum! The raisins inside is like a sweet bonus. I will definitely make this again, and double the recipe. :)) Do try this out if you like cheese and tarts, its highly recommended!

Have a good weekend all! Cheers!