Hong Kong Coconut Tarts: The Underrated Bakery Classic You Need to Try
These Hong Kong-style coconut tarts are buttery, tender, and packed with rich coconut flavor in every bite. As a bonus, they taste even better the very next day!
Equipment
- 1 Sauce pan
- 8 Tart molds
Ingredients
Filling
- 5 g Custard powder
- 5 g Milk powder
- 95 g White granulated sugar
- 1 whole Large egg
- 21 g Cake flour
- 21 g Bread flour
- 5 g Baking powder
- 92 g Desiccated coconut flakes
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 25 g Melted unsalted butter
- 30 ml 2% milk Can sub with whole milk or 1%
- 50 ml Evaporated milk
Crust
- 15 g Milk powder
- 15 g White sugar
- 85 g Unsalted butter Room temperature
- 7.5 g Egg approximately 1.5 teaspoons
- 100 g Cake flour
Topping
- 4 pieces Candied cherry
Glaze
- 1 Tablespoon Apricot jam
Instructions
Filling
- In a large mixing bowl, add in your sugar, cake flour, bread flour, custard powder, egg, room temperature butter, baking powder, regular milk, and evaporated milk.
- Mix everything well together.
- Add in desiccated coconut flakes.
- Mix everything well together.
- Cover the filling and put it in the fridge, preferably overnight, but a minimum of 2-4 hours (it will taste better the longer it is left in the fridge!).
Crust
- Sift your cake flour to your countertop.
- Make a hole in the middle.
- Add in your room temperature butter, sugar, milk powder, and egg.
- Mix everything together and push the flour towards the center while kneading the dough.
- Knead the dough until it’s smooth and there are no more white flour spots, but don’t go overboard. It should take you no more than 1-2 minutes.
- Then cover the dough and put it in the fridge to cool down for at least 1 hour.
Assembly
- Take the dough out of the fridge and weigh it.
- Sprinkle some flour on top, roll it out into a log, and divide the dough into 8 equal pieces.
- Next, grease your egg tart molds with some butter.
- Place each piece of dough onto the molds and slowly press down onto the dough with your thumb while rotating the mold and pressing down onto the sides of the dough with your other thumb to spread the dough out and upwards. The dough should cover all sections of the mold.
- Then, place the crusts into the fridge to cool down for at least an hour.
- After an hour, take both the crusts and filling out of the fridge.
- Give the filling a quick mix, then scoop a large spoonful onto the tart crust.
- Flatten the top of the tart. It should be just slightly above the tart crust. Do not overfill!
- Take a candied cherry and cut it in half and then place it on top of the tart.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven at 375°F for about 24-25 minutes.
Making the glaze
- While the coconut tarts are baking, add some water to a saucepan and bring it to a boil.
- Then place a metal bowl on top of the sauce pan and add in some jam.
- Heat up the jam on medium heat while stirring the bowl until it turns into a liquid.
- Once done baking, apply the jam on top of the coconut tarts.
- Let the coconut tarts cool down for about 5-10 minutes then remove them from the tart mold and serve.