Bon Appétit joins Lucas Sin at Gold Garden Cafe in Hong Kong to try their puff pastry egg tarts. Puff pastry filled with egg custard, these tarts are one of Hong Kong’s favorite sweet treats.
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00:00Good morning, first thing in the morning here in Cheung Sa Wan, Hong Kong.
00:07We're looking at egg tarts at Kam Yuen Gold Garden.
00:10This is one of the most iconic egg tarts in Hong Kong, also one of my personal favorites.
00:14Sifu is starting to make the egg tarts right now, let's see what's happening.
00:18This place opens at 6.30 in the morning.
00:20They're one of the few cha cha teng left that have a full bakery program, including things
00:24like egg tarts that come out fresh every single day.
00:28Welcome to the back of the cha cha teng.
00:29So this is, I would say, a pretty typical cha cha teng bakery setup.
00:34You have your chillers, you have your mixers, dough dividers, this old school oven, and
00:41benches for working the dough.
00:43Hong Kong style egg tarts, there are two primary types of dough.
00:47The first is called a sui pei, dough that's primarily flour, a little bit of milk, a little
00:50bit of eggs.
00:52It's kind of like a pie crust dough.
00:53The second dough is the yau pei, so that's the fatty, the fat dough.
00:58In this case, it's a lard dough.
01:00Despite being called a dough, it's primarily lard.
01:02Both are based off of low gluten, low protein flour.
01:05So what we're looking at here is the lard dough.
01:08It starts with flour, low gluten, low protein flour.
01:12You don't want a lot of gluten development because you don't want chewiness, you want
01:15flakiness, you want crumbiness.
01:16And now, an important addition is milk powder for that milky flavor.
01:21Milk powder also is going to caramelize really quite nicely, and when the egg tart is finished
01:25baking, it's going to be a nice, deep golden brown.
01:29And here's the lard, rendered off-site, nice and clean, bright white.
01:33Lard, unlike butter, is lower in moisture content and has a higher melting point.
01:37As a result, it disperses itself throughout the dough.
01:40In combination with the lamination technique, you don't get distinct layers the way you
01:46would, let's say, in a croissant.
01:48And here's a little bit of vanilla extract, which is a personal preference, give it a
01:52little bit of that western flavor.
01:55The end result is going to be a relatively stiff dough.
01:57Chef has to work quite quickly, because once this is done, he needs to portion them out
02:01into the trays, which are going to be chilled overnight before they're used tomorrow.
02:06You might be familiar with lamination by a viennoiserie, or pastries like croissants
02:10and so on and so forth, but lamination in Cantonese baking is a little bit different.
02:15Obviously, there's a European antecedent to some degree, but the way it's happened and
02:21the way we achieve that flakiness is significantly different.
02:25First things first, is when we're looking at the dough, it's actually two types of dough.
02:28This on the top is called siu pei, which translates to water crust.
02:33On the bottom is yau pei, which translates to oil crust.
02:37You can see that after it's been chilled, it's quite hard.
02:41After this has been made the day before, chef is now rolling out and slowly laminating the
02:46dough.
02:47He's adding a little bit more flour, he's rolling it out just to get it into an even
02:49shape.
02:53Then he's going to book fold it, so the right and the left meet in the middle, and the whole
02:58book is closed.
03:00He's rolling it out one more time.
03:02He's going to do the book fold three times, one, two.
03:13That comes over the top.
03:15So that's one simple fold and three book folds.
03:18That's 128 layers.
03:20Whenever people talk about pastry on the internet, they like talking about how many layers they
03:23have.
03:24That's not the right way to understand and taste the Hong Kong egg tart.
03:30It's flakiness is not by separation of distinct layers by oil, but it's a little bit more
03:36of an integrated dough.
03:37I think it's not only just flaky, but it's also crumbly.
03:40That's what makes gam yoon so good.
03:41You can see that after the dough has been rested, and with all of this rolling, the
03:46wet dough is now almost fully incorporated into the lard dough.
03:49He's dusting a good amount of flour over the top to make sure that it doesn't stick to
03:52the rolling pin.
03:54And once it's nice and even, with a little bit of force on the cookie cutter, he portioned
03:58out the dough for each egg tart.
04:03Chef's cookie cutter is ridged on the side, which is pretty typical of the flaky crust
04:06egg tarts.
04:11That little bit of texture on the side is going to prevent the egg tart from cracking
04:14when it bakes, but it also is kind of like a cultural expectation.
04:20And the dough goes back into the freezer just to chill, just to rest before it gets rimmed.
04:27The central component of the egg tart, obviously, is the egg filling.
04:30The number one ingredient is whole eggs.
04:32Unlike the Portuguese egg tarts, it's full eggs, one egg yolk per egg white.
04:37First thing is the egg, the second, a simple syrup of white sugar and water, and finally
04:42a little bit of evaporated milk.
04:44Eight cans per bucket.
04:46That's the recipe.
04:47The addition of the evaporated milk is a little bit thicker, a little bit creamier in consistency
04:51than regular milk, and as you can tell, it's slightly brown, giving it a little bit of
04:55that lick of caramelized milk flavor.
04:57Chef is whisking it together.
04:58To bring it together, the emulsifiers are in the egg itself, which means that this is
05:02going to be one homogenous mixture.
05:04That mixture is going to rest, and hopefully this is going to feed all of the egg tarts
05:08that he needs to make throughout the day.
05:10And now is the time to line the mold to set that tart shell.
05:13These stainless steel molds have been used for a really long time, so the first step
05:16is Chef uses a bit of extra dough just to clean them out from the last bake, and places
05:21that pretty thick tart shell into the center of the mold.
05:25Using his thumbs, moving clockwise, he presses out the air from the bottom of the mold, leaving
05:30a little bit of a higher wall that reaches over the top of the side.
05:34The shape of the tart shell is pretty important for the final texture of the egg tart.
05:38It needs to be thin towards the bottom, it needs to be light and fluffy, and it needs
05:42to be tall.
05:44And without this technique, the egg filling won't cook properly, and it won't be flaky,
05:48crusty, and crumbly.
05:51And the last step, the chef is going to fill the egg tarts with a little bit of that egg
05:55filling before it goes into the oven.
05:57It bakes for about 20 minutes, but it really depends on the day and the temperature of
06:00the oven.
06:01It's coming out.
06:02How is it?
06:03It's coming out.
06:04How long have you baked it?
06:0520 minutes.
06:06When it comes out, you can see that there's a little bit of a dome shape, because that
06:14water vapor is pushing up, so it's going to depress a little bit after it comes out.
06:19It looks so good.
06:21So, I think part of the ceremony of this is that it comes out every 15, 20, 30 minutes
06:41whenever it's busy.
06:42They're running out of egg tarts here in the front. They tell it back and they bake another one
06:46So when it comes out the ceremony of egg tarts of the smell of everyone washing what's going on
06:51That's part of what makes it so charming. You can see the consistency but all these part of the Hong Kong thing
06:57I suppose with bakeries is picking your favorite one for me. I'd probably pick this one
07:01You see that separation of those layers and you see that a little bit of dome a little bit of caramelization
07:07It's a consistent color
07:09Okay, I'm gonna sit that go in sit down get a milk tea get an egg tart see what the deal is
07:15You boys, huh?
07:18We're cheating you a little bit because now it's the morning
07:21But I think you're moist has a go about this kind of tradition
07:24translates to
07:26Have a cup of tea
07:27Have a little bread that a little bit of a bread or a pastry with a drink is a very some dim sum 315
07:33Afternoon tea type of thing for us Hong Kong people
07:35It's a good place to chat with people when the restaurant is less busy
07:39It's also a really good time to just you know, take a little bit of a moment to yourself. Oh
07:51Quick
07:52Pastry analysis another pastry chef. I'm just like happy to be here. So sides here a little bit thick
07:58That's where a lot of that crumb is coming the inside the bottom is it's thinnest around the edge here
08:03You can see the layers of the lamination, but I'm like a croissant. I'm like a puff a true 100% puff pastry dough
08:10The entire dough is a little bit more brought together
08:13So as I mean you can tell like all over the plate all over the table already. It's just coming apart
08:25So good
08:28It's actually so good
08:30The outside is so flaky the lard
08:34By the way, lard doesn't really taste like pork in this context. It's sweetened. It's like it
08:40Powderized it's all over your fingers
08:42So nice and warm gently sweet
08:46Here at Gold Garden, they've been doing this for so so so many years this iconic
08:51Placement within the neighborhood like Changsha one. It's so residential
08:54If either they're selling it out in the front and still making it in the back. Finally, it's so fresh
08:58That's what makes Gold Gardens egg tarts. So special
09:02And this is the type of egg tart you can only get here in Hong Kong at Gold Garden in Changsha one
09:08There's a lot more to eat in Hong Kong. So on to the next