00:00Good morning, first thing in the morning here in Cheung Sa Wan, Hong Kong.
00:07We're looking at egg tarts at Kam Yuen Gold Garden.
00:10This is one of the most iconic egg tarts in Hong Kong, also one of my personal favorites.
00:14Sifu is starting to make the egg tarts right now, let's see what's happening.
00:18This place opens at 6.30 in the morning.
00:20They're one of the few cha cha teng left that have a full bakery program, including things
00:24like egg tarts that come out fresh every single day.
00:28Welcome to the back of the cha cha teng.
00:29So this is, I would say, a pretty typical cha cha teng bakery setup.
00:34You have your chillers, you have your mixers, dough dividers, this old school oven, and
00:41benches for working the dough.
00:43Hong Kong style egg tarts, there are two primary types of dough.
00:47The first is called a sui pei, dough that's primarily flour, a little bit of milk, a little
00:50bit of eggs.
00:52It's kind of like a pie crust dough.
00:53The second dough is the yau pei, so that's the fatty, the fat dough.
00:58In this case, it's a lard dough.
01:00Despite being called a dough, it's primarily lard.
01:02Both are based off of low gluten, low protein flour.
01:05So what we're looking at here is the lard dough.
01:08It starts with flour, low gluten, low protein flour.
01:12You don't want a lot of gluten development because you don't want chewiness, you want
01:15flakiness, you want crumbiness.
01:16And now, an important addition is milk powder for that milky flavor.
01:21Milk powder also is going to caramelize really quite nicely, and when the egg tart is finished
01:25baking, it's going to be a nice, deep golden brown.
01:29And here's the lard, rendered off-site, nice and clean, bright white.
01:33Lard, unlike butter, is lower in moisture content and has a higher melting point.
01:37As a result, it disperses itself throughout the dough.
01:40In combination with the lamination technique, you don't get distinct layers the way you
01:46would, let's say, in a croissant.
01:48And here's a little bit of vanilla extract, which is a personal preference, give it a
01:52little bit of that western flavor.
01:55The end result is going to be a relatively stiff dough.
01:57Chef has to work quite quickly, because once this is done, he needs to portion them out
02:01into the trays, which are going to be chilled overnight before they're used tomorrow.
02:06You might be familiar with lamination by a viennoiserie, or pastries like croissants
02:10and so on and so forth, but lamination in Cantonese baking is a little bit different.
02:15Obviously, there's a European antecedent to some degree, but the way it's happened and
02:21the way we achieve that flakiness is significantly different.
02:25First things first, is when we're looking at the dough, it's actually two types of dough.
02:28This on the top is called siu pei, which translates to water crust.
02:33On the bottom is yau pei, which translates to oil crust.
02:37You can see that after it's been chilled, it's quite hard.
02:41After this has been made the day before, chef is now rolling out and slowly laminating the
02:46dough.
02:47He's adding a little bit more flour, he's rolling it out just to get it into an even
02:49shape.
02:53Then he's going to book fold it, so the right and the left meet in the middle, and the whole
02:58book is closed.
03:00He's rolling it out one more time.
03:02He's going to do the book fold three times, one, two.
03:13That comes over the top.
03:15So that's one simple fold and three book folds.
03:18That's 128 layers.
03:20Whenever people talk about pastry on the internet, they like talking about how many layers they
03:23have.
03:24That's not the right way to understand and taste the Hong Kong egg tart.
03:30It's flakiness is not by separation of distinct layers by oil, but it's a little bit more
03:36of an integrated dough.
03:37I think it's not only just flaky, but it's also crumbly.
03:40That's what makes gam yoon so good.
03:41You can see that after the dough has been rested, and with all of this rolling, the
03:46wet dough is now almost fully incorporated into the lard dough.
03:49He's dusting a good amount of flour over the top to make sure that it doesn't stick to
03:52the rolling pin.
03:54And once it's nice and even, with a little bit of force on the cookie cutter, he portioned
03:58out the dough for each egg tart.
04:03Chef's cookie cutter is ridged on the side, which is pretty typical of the flaky crust
04:06egg tarts.
04:11That little bit of texture on the side is going to prevent the egg tart from cracking
04:14when it bakes, but it also is kind of like a cultural expectation.
04:20And the dough goes back into the freezer just to chill, just to rest before it gets rimmed.
04:27The central component of the egg tart, obviously, is the egg filling.
04:30The number one ingredient is whole eggs.
04:32Unlike the Portuguese egg tarts, it's full eggs, one egg yolk per egg white.
04:37First thing is the egg, the second, a simple syrup of white sugar and water, and finally
04:42a little bit of evaporated milk.
04:44Eight cans per bucket.
04:46That's the recipe.
04:47The addition of the evaporated milk is a little bit thicker, a little bit creamier in consistency
04:51than regular milk, and as you can tell, it's slightly brown, giving it a little bit of
04:55that lick of caramelized milk flavor.
04:57Chef is whisking it together.
04:58To bring it together, the emulsifiers are in the egg itself, which means that this is
05:02going to be one homogenous mixture.
05:04That mixture is going to rest, and hopefully this is going to feed all of the egg tarts
05:08that he needs to make throughout the day.
05:10And now is the time to line the mold to set that tart shell.
05:13These stainless steel molds have been used for a really long time, so the first step
05:16is Chef uses a bit of extra dough just to clean them out from the last bake, and places
05:21that pretty thick tart shell into the center of the mold.
05:25Using his thumbs, moving clockwise, he presses out the air from the bottom of the mold, leaving
05:30a little bit of a higher wall that reaches over the top of the side.
05:34The shape of the tart shell is pretty important for the final texture of the egg tart.
05:38It needs to be thin towards the bottom, it needs to be light and fluffy, and it needs
05:42to be tall.
05:44And without this technique, the egg filling won't cook properly, and it won't be flaky,
05:48crusty, and crumbly.
05:51And the last step, the chef is going to fill the egg tarts with a little bit of that egg
05:55filling before it goes into the oven.
05:57It bakes for about 20 minutes, but it really depends on the day and the temperature of
06:00the oven.
06:01It's coming out.
06:02How is it?
06:03It's coming out.
06:04How long have you baked it?
06:0520 minutes.
06:06When it comes out, you can see that there's a little bit of a dome shape, because that
06:14water vapor is pushing up, so it's going to depress a little bit after it comes out.
06:19It looks so good.
06:21So, I think part of the ceremony of this is that it comes out every 15, 20, 30 minutes
06:41whenever it's busy.
06:42They're running out of egg tarts here in the front. They tell it back and they bake another one
06:46So when it comes out the ceremony of egg tarts of the smell of everyone washing what's going on
06:51That's part of what makes it so charming. You can see the consistency but all these part of the Hong Kong thing
06:57I suppose with bakeries is picking your favorite one for me. I'd probably pick this one
07:01You see that separation of those layers and you see that a little bit of dome a little bit of caramelization
07:07It's a consistent color
07:09Okay, I'm gonna sit that go in sit down get a milk tea get an egg tart see what the deal is
07:15You boys, huh?
07:18We're cheating you a little bit because now it's the morning
07:21But I think you're moist has a go about this kind of tradition
07:24translates to
07:26Have a cup of tea
07:27Have a little bread that a little bit of a bread or a pastry with a drink is a very some dim sum 315
07:33Afternoon tea type of thing for us Hong Kong people
07:35It's a good place to chat with people when the restaurant is less busy
07:39It's also a really good time to just you know, take a little bit of a moment to yourself. Oh
07:51Quick
07:52Pastry analysis another pastry chef. I'm just like happy to be here. So sides here a little bit thick
07:58That's where a lot of that crumb is coming the inside the bottom is it's thinnest around the edge here
08:03You can see the layers of the lamination, but I'm like a croissant. I'm like a puff a true 100% puff pastry dough
08:10The entire dough is a little bit more brought together
08:13So as I mean you can tell like all over the plate all over the table already. It's just coming apart
08:25So good
08:28It's actually so good
08:30The outside is so flaky the lard
08:34By the way, lard doesn't really taste like pork in this context. It's sweetened. It's like it
08:40Powderized it's all over your fingers
08:42So nice and warm gently sweet
08:46Here at Gold Garden, they've been doing this for so so so many years this iconic
08:51Placement within the neighborhood like Changsha one. It's so residential
08:54If either they're selling it out in the front and still making it in the back. Finally, it's so fresh
08:58That's what makes Gold Gardens egg tarts. So special
09:02And this is the type of egg tart you can only get here in Hong Kong at Gold Garden in Changsha one
09:08There's a lot more to eat in Hong Kong. So on to the next
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