Baked Three-Cheese Tarts

Originating from Japan's island of Hokkaido, the most raved about Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart is a crispy, and buttery shortcrust pastry base filled with a top-secret mix of three types of cheese produced in Hokkaido.  However what we are getting in Australia is a close replica, made with local quality dairy product. Today I decided to try my hands on making Meg's HBCT recipe.  And I was over the moon when my tarts came out from the oven - they were simply beautiful and bursting with cheesy aromas. Thank you Meg for sharing the recipe!

Tart Pastry:
100g plain flour
20g caster sugar
50g cold salted butter, cut into cubes
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp fresh milk

• Place flour, sugar and butter into a large mixing bowl.  Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Add in egg yolk and milk and mix until the dough binds together.  Knead the dough gently into a ball and wrap it in clingfilm. Refrigerate the dough for about 1 hour.
• Remove dough from the fridge.  Take a small amount of dough and press down gently with your fingers so that the dough is centred in the well. Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork.  
• Bake tart shells in 180°C fan-forced oven for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. After tart shells are cooled slightly, remove them from the moulds and cool completely before use.

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Cheese Custard:

(A)

150g cream cheese

50g mascarpone cheese

20g parmesan cheese

30g salted butter

100g fresh milk

(B)

30g icing sugar

12g corn starch

(C)

1 whole egg

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp sea salt

• Bring a small saucepan holding a couple of inches of water to a simmer over very low heat. Place a heatproof bowl on top of the saucepan ensuring that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water (you only want the steam from the simmering water to gently warm the bowl).
• Place all ingredients (A) into the bowl and stir occasionally until all the cheese have melted.
• Sift in all ingredients (B) and stir to combine.  
• Add in all ingredients (C) and continue to stir until well blended.  The mixture will thicken.
• Strain the cheese custard through a fine mesh strainer to get a velvety and smooth texture.  Leave the custard to cool completely before using.

cooking cheese custard over double-boiler

cooked cheese custard

To fill the tart shells:

Glaze - 1 egg yolk, beaten

• Preheat oven to 230°C (fan-forced).
• Fill the cheese custard into a piping bag with a nozzle and pipe custard into the cooled tart shells.  Brush the top of the custard with beaten egg yolk.
• Bake the cheese tarts for 7 minutes.
• Remove tarts from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Note:  I managed to make 8 mini tart shells but didn't use up all the cheese custard.