Cheese Tarts Recipe
Cheese Tarts these days has been very popular in Hong Kong. People queue up for hours to buy one. Living in US, I have no way to taste those famous cheese tarts from famous bakery shops in Hong Kong. After reading several recipes, I decide to try baking some for myself and my husband.
In this recipe, I tried the first time using aged 10 months Parmesan Cheese. To me, the taste is a bit bland. The tarts taste like ordinary cheesecake with a tart crust. Not the thing I am after. So I tried the second time and used aged 36 months Parmesan Cheese for this recipe. And this time, it’s way better, this is what I call a cheese tart. The cheese taste maybe a little too strong, will try using aged 24 months Parmesan Cheese next time and update the result. You may experiment with different cheese you like, just keep the cream cheese of the same amount in the recipe.
Time & Yield
- Prep Time: 30 mins to 40 mins
- Bake Time: 22 mins
- Yield: 12 tarts
Ingredient
| Ingredient | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Crust | Cake Flour | 180 | g |
| Butter | 90 | g | |
| Icing Sugar | 40 | g | |
| Salt | 1 | g | |
| Egg | 1 | pc | |
| Filling | Cream Cheese | 100 | g |
| Aged Parmesan Cheese | 40 | g | |
| Heavy Cream | 70 | g | |
| Sugar | 30 | g | |
| Egg Yolk | 1 | pc | |
| Beaten egg, for egg wash | 1 | pc | |
| Lemon juice (optional) | 1/2 | tsp | |
| Vanilla extra (optional) | 1 | tsp | |
Gallery
Directions
- Cut butter into 1-inch dices and refrigerate.
- Mix the cake flour, icing sugar and salt in a large bowl. Then rub butter into the flour mixture with finger tips.
- Stir in the egg until the ingredients are thoroughly combined.
- Work on the dough a little but not too much, otherwise the butter will melt
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 25 minutes
- While the dough is refrigerating, prepare the fillings. In a small saucepan, pour in heavy cream and sugar. Heat over medium heat. Add the cream cheese and parmesan cheese. Stir constantly until all the cheese is dissolve and smooth
- Remove from heat and let the cheese mixture cool down a little
- Stir in the egg yolk, lemon juice and vanilla extra. Let the filling to cool down for at least 25 minutes
- Preheat the oven to 350F/180C
- Divide the dough into 12 portions
- Press the portions into bottom and up the sides of 12 tart molds. Use thumbs to press evenly, starting from the bottom up the sides. Keep rotating the mold while pressing the dough against the wall to obtain even thickness
- Prick the base with a fork. Line with parchment paper and place pie weight on top
- Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool in a rack
- Preheat the oven to 400F/200C
- Spoon the fillings into the tart shells
- Brush the top with egg wash
- Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the tarts from the oven and cool in a rack.
- Remove from the tins and serve.