Dan Tat (Cantonese Egg Tarts)

Make the pastry dough

Rub the cold butter into the flour and icing sugar with your fingertips until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs, then stir in the egg yolk and cold water and bring together into a smooth dough.

Chill the dough

Wrap the dough and refrigerate it for thirty minutes so the butter firms back up.

Line the tart tins

Divide the chilled dough into twelve pieces, press each into a tart tin to form a thin, even shell, and place the tins on a tray.

Make the custard

Dissolve the sugar in the hot water and let it cool slightly, then whisk in the eggs, evaporated milk and vanilla extract until smooth, and strain through a sieve.

Fill the shells

Preheat the oven to two hundred degrees Celsius, then pour the strained custard into each pastry shell until nearly full.

Bake the tarts

Bake for ten minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to one hundred and sixty degrees Celsius and bake for a further ten minutes until the custard is just set with a slight wobble in the centre.

Cool and serve

Let the tarts cool in their tins for ten minutes before unmoulding, and serve warm or at room temperature.