A silky, sweet egg custard filling encased by crisp and tender puff pastry.
A laminated dough produces the distinct flaky layers in the crust that bake up crisp and light.
Perhaps one of the most well-known of these confections—a standard by which all Chinese bakeries may be judged—is the Cantonese or Guangzhou-style egg tart . With its silky, sweet egg custard filling encased by crisp and tender puff pastry, this tart is believed to have originated in Canton around the 1920s, in response to the sudden influx of British businessmen and officials and their love of the British egg custard tart.
I looked at the ratio of fat to flour in the “oil-dough” layer. Typically, in classic puff pastry, the butter layer and dough layer are distinct: There is little to no flour in the butter layer, and all of the gluten is contained in the lean dough layer. When baked, the butter melts away, any water evaporates , and the layers of dough separate. Because there is little to no flour in the butter layers, you’re left with layers of crisp, crunchy dough.