We’ve seen food trends come and go in Singapore, but rarely has a food item been so popular that it spawns dozens of spin-offs, even before its actual launch. Such is the allure of the baked cheese tarts from Hokkaido-headquartered Bake Cheese Tarts, which opened its first Singapore outlet in the basement of Ion Orchard on 29 April.
If you haven’t got the time or energy to brave the snaking queues for those molten-centred cheesy treats, why not try your hand at recreating the oozy gems at home? We've helped you source this tried-and-tested recipe courtesy of eminent homebaker and food blogger, Meg Tan of Dreamersloft.
The best part is: her version swaps in easy-to-find ingredients that can be sourced from most neighbourhood supermarkets - so you don't have to fret over how to fly in cartons of fresh ingredients from Hokkaido regularly.
“The aroma of the tarts filled the entire shop - the street even - and I could see why people were willing to queue for them. I, too, had queued for about 30 mins at Bake Cheese Tart’s Jiyugaoka outlet in Japan and bought two tarts: one for immediate consumption and the other, for breakfast the next day. The tart pastry was fragrant and crunchy and the filling was really sharp, cheesy and creamy. I took one bite after another and in no time, one tart was gone. I almost wanted to eat the other one there and then.
After coming home, I kept thinking about baking this tart and started searching on the internet for recipes and attempts by other bakers. After four attempts and nine tart cases - I test-baked the first four piece by piece to get the right consistency, the right temperature and timing - and with many adjustments to the cheese custard, I was finally successful.
There is no way I could get any Hokkaido cream cheese here, so I used Philadelphia cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, parmesan cheese and salted butter instead, as well as fresh milk and eggs. These are the ingredients I have on-hand and am familiar with. Feel free to try out other cheese combinations.” ...read the full post on Dreamersloft
Baked Cheese Tart
Makes 8-9 tarts, using a 5.5cm top and 3cm base baking tin
Note: The cheese custard yield is more than enough to fill the tart pastry. You can also increase the tart pastry recipe by 20 per cent or reduce custard recipe by 20 per cent according to your preference.
Ingredients
For the tart pastry
- 100g cake flour
- 20g icing sugar
- 50g salted butter, cut into cubes, cold
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 tsp fresh milk
For the cheese custard
- 150g cream cheese
- 50g Mascarpone cheese
- 20g Parmesan cheese
- 30g salted butter
- 100g fresh milk
- 30g icing sugar
- 8-12g corn starch, depending on consistency desired
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- up to 1/4 tsp sea salt (optional)
- 1 egg yolk for brushing on top of custard
Enjoy the tarts warm and freshly baked.
“Have a recipe you want to share? Email us at lifestyle@michelin.sg with your recipe and a short story about how you came up with it, and we may feature it here.”
