RAWR

Happy year of the tiger! In the spirit of Chinese New Year, I tried my hand at making some dim sum.

First there were the turnip cakes (usually seen in square form at restaurants), which are actually made from shredded daikon - a mild radish. Why the root vegetable misnomenclature, I don't know.

Then. THEN. Let there be egg custard tarts! Mmmm... flaky crust, creamy filling... Maybe a touch sweet for my taste, but that didn't stop me from eating three. I got my recipe straight from pastry studio
Here's what you do:

1. Make some pie dough. Roll out, cut into 3 /2-in. circles, and pat them into a muffin tin. There's so much butter, no need to grease.

2. Bake the little cups at 375 for about 15 minutes.

3. Make your magical pastry cream. I added 1/2 tsp almond extract instead of rum in the recipe. See here for pastry cream success.

4. Spoon cream into little cups, and bake for 15 minutes more.

5. Lick spatula and pot clean while waiting.

6. Devour tarts while hot.

7. High-5 self.