Tim Chin is a professional cook and writer who has contributed to Serious Eats and America’s Test Kitchen. A graduate of The International Culinary Center, Tim has cooked at restaurants in New York and Boston, working at Rouge Tomate, Northern Spy, and BiSq.

Tim Chin

The Chinese egg tart is a staple of any Chinatown bakery: Individual servings of silky sweet, bright yellow <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/custard-parametric-analysis">custard</a> encased in super flaky puff pastry.But what about a big version? An egg tart you can whip up for a potluck and share? Chefs like Brandon Jew of San Francisco’s <a href="https://www.misterjius.com/">Mister Jiu’s</a> and Jonathan Tam of Copenhagen’s <a href="https://www.jatakcph.com/">JATAK</a> have offered their own riffs on the big egg tart, each of them celebrating the pastry in a unique way. Whereas Jew’s tart draws influence from the Macau-style tart, or po tat, with its caramelized top, Tam’s tart looks more like the uncaramelized Honk Kong–style daan tat.I wanted to do a big Macau-style tart with a Chinese puff pastry crust, made from scratch, but there were a few challenges to getting there. Going big meant that the filling and the crust—especially the crust— would take longer to cook. Since egg-based custards tend to overcook easily and curdle, I had to strike a delicate balance between timing and temperature.To hedge against overcooking, I use a starch-based custard—essentially a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/pastry-cream">pastry cream</a>. Starches slow protein coagulation by blocking protein molecules from bonding during cooking. Not only does starch help the custard become silky, smooth, and thick, it also means you can cook the custard far longer without curdling the eggs. For added browning, I incorporate heavy cream into the custard, providing more milk proteins for caramelization. And instead of whisking, I blitz the chilled custard with an immersion blender, ensuring a smooth finished texture. Puff pastry thrives in a hot oven—around [f 400] and higher produces the most dramatic layers—but I found slightly higher temperatures were necessary to achieve optimal caramelization of the top. The result is a tall, deeply browned, silky yet sliceable custard, surrounded by hundreds of delicate, flaky layers.

Big Macau Egg Tart