Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 836 - 418: Puff Pastry Dough
Egg tart, a pastry familiar to everyone in the country.
From the small shop version at 2.5 yuan each, lacking the caramel color and just a bright yellow of a skimped version, to the slightly pricier but highly praised and quality-consistent standard version at a certain K’s C, and the newly launched blind box versions of varied prices at large cake shops that don’t guarantee deliciousness, the egg tart is arguably one of the most common snacks.
So, has Qin Huai made such a common pastry?
Yes, he has.
To his embarrassment, although Qin Huai has made them, his process of making egg tarts was even more skimped than Zhao Cheng’an. Qin Huai directly bought ready-made tart crusts and egg tart mix from the supermarket and baked a batch of so-called finished egg tarts at home with Qin Luo using an oven.
It’s well known that Qin Huai is very bad at making flaky pastries.
Making flaky pastries requires the preparation of a pastry dough. Pastry dough is a general term for dough used in all flaky products; flaky dough is a dough mixed with water, oil, and flour, while dry flaky dough is kneaded with oil and powder only.
Moreover, pastry dough can be divided into hidden flaky, visible flaky, and half visible half hidden flaky categories, and if dividing by technique, visible flaky can be further divided into large wrap flaky and small wrap flaky.
Doesn’t it sound very professional and hard to understand?
Qin Huai also didn’t understand it when he first saw this explanation in the Snack Encyclopedia. Compared to basic versions like buns, siu mai, various cakes, and noodles, which can be understood by looking at the recipe, trying to learn how to make flaky pastries through text and pictures is pretty much daydreaming.
Anyway, given Qin Huai’s talent, he didn’t understand the Snack Encyclopedia when he was young. Of course, understanding it didn’t help either, as Qin Family bought the oven when Qin Huai was in his second year of high school, before that, they didn’t even have an oven, which was practically like a smart woman unable to cook without rice.
Qin Huai still, after the family had an oven, bought a batch of semi-finished products from the supermarket and baked two batches of egg tarts with Qin Luo for fun, then found relevant video tutorials online, explored for a while, and roughly understood a little pathway, being able to make some simple flaky pastries, like basic flaky pastries, peach cakes, and so on.
As for egg tarts...
To be honest, before coming to Zhiwei Restaurant, Qin Huai had never linked egg tarts with flaky pastry. Mentioning flaky pastry before, Qin Huai thought of those extremely exquisite and beautiful pastries, like lotus cakes, apple pastries, pear pastries, and mandarin duck pastries, but egg tarts...
His impression of it remained as a must-have item in a cake shop.
Master Zhou, the No.1 in pastry, practicing egg tarts intensively recently to explore new directions in flaky pastries was something Qin Huai did not expect, but Qin Huai himself was indeed enjoying it a lot. Who could refuse some top-notch egg tarts during afternoon tea time?
However, making egg tarts seems simple; if worse comes to worst, you could just learn from Qin Huai, buy tart crusts and egg tart mix from the supermarket, and bake them at home, which also counts as making them.
But if you want it complicated, the difficulty is not low either.
The essence of an egg tart is a Western-style pie made with an egg custard filling. According to Zhao Cheng’an, egg tarts first appeared in Daiying, with the earliest variants made with milk, sugar, eggs, and spices in the Middle Ages.
After that, egg tarts spread to Hong Kong, where generations of snack masters improved and made it famous, becoming one of the renowned Guangzhou-style snack four kings. Master Zhou wanting to explore Western pastry, starting his research from egg tarts, was actually a very correct idea, as egg tarts, being a Western pastry, are indeed somewhat too Chinese.
The process of improving egg tarts is essentially the process of improving the pastry crust. Initially, the tart crust was heavy, and after countless improvements by generations of masters, the heavy crust was turned into a flaky crust, providing a crisper, more delicate taste. Such flaky crusts, eaten with a richly creamy filling, let you feel the taste layer by layer, sweet but not cloying, fragrant, yet mild.
It can be said that the ceiling of egg tarts is as high as the quality of the crust, with the custard merely an appendage. If the crust wants the custard to taste good, it will taste good.
Now with Master Zhou asking Qin Huai to make egg tarts, Qin Huai feels Master Zhou might misunderstand and think he is versatile, so he could make any snack. But egg tarts...
Well, the difficulty of egg tarts isn’t very high; theoretically, Qin Huai can make them, but Qin Huai indeed has not made egg tarts before.
There were no egg tarts in the Snack Encyclopedia, and Qin Luo never clamored for egg tarts either. If Qin Luo wanted, the cheap cake shop at the school gate sells them for three yuan each or five yuan for two.
Although they don’t taste great and the crust can be said to be pretty terrible, they are cheaper, and if you manage to catch a batch just out of the oven, they are quite fragrant.
Qin Huai looked at Master Zhou, feeling difficulty inside, but outwardly remaining calm, said: "Egg tarts, huh... I can give it a try, but Master Zhou, I’ve basically never made this kind of snack before."
Master Zhou nodded slightly, his attitude still very gentle, without any negative emotion: "I know, I’ve heard from Xiao Tan, Xiao Qin, you are not good at making flaky pastries and usually don’t make them."
"When you first arrived, I only asked for the snacks you are best at. You’ve observed quite a bit these days, so I want to see how you fare with the snacks you are least proficient at."
Master Zhou was just short of writing on his face that he knows you’re not good at this, and no matter how you perform, he won’t scold you since he is the lenient Master Zhou in front of you.
