A couple questions about specific baking chemistry (egg tarts)

Cafe Society
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I successfully made dim sum egg tarts yesterday. This recipe: Egg Tart (Dan Tat) | Gwen's Kitchen Creations

AMAZING.

But I have two questions I’m hoping someone can answer…

First, regarding the puff pastry. This is the first puff pastry (or any other “laminated dough”) recipe I have ever seen that, instead of using a basic dough layered with pure fat (generally butter), calls for the fat to be combined with a significant about of flour, making a true separate dough. A super-fatty one, but still dough. Now, you would think that this would reduce, rather than enhance the overall flakiness, but it does the reverse. This is, without any doubt, the most tender, flaky laminated dough I have ever made, and I have made many over the years. It’s amazing. (Next time I’m going to reverse the lard/butter ratios and add some salt, which will probably make it rise even more, since there is more <a class=“ktg6us78hf8vdu7” href=“javascript:void(0)”>water</a> in butter, and the water turns into steam, pushing up the layers… ) Does anyone understand the chemistry at work here?

Second question is about the filling. Every “dan tat” recipe I found calls for simple syrup, rather than just sugar. None of them explained the choice. I made egg <a class=“ktg6us78hf8vdu7” href=“javascript:void(0)”>tarts</a> using cream and sugar and eggs and they were fantastic, but I did notice they looked a little more like Portuguese egg tarts, which puff and brown. I’m hazarding a guess that by mixing the sugar with <a class=“ktg6us78hf8vdu7” href=“javascript:void(0)”>water</a> to make the syrup, it affects the propensity of the custard to puff up and brown, thus making the clear distinction between the two kinds of custard tarts? And anyone know why?

I love to understand the science/chemistry of cooking, because it gives you a lot more control and ability to go outside the recipe.

By the way, the pastry is superb and makes an excellent cradle for any kind of filling: nuts, sweet cheese, fruit… amazing stuff. I plan to make spicy pumpkin-pecan tarts with it, since the most annoying part of making those is fussing with the crust. This stuff is pretty no-fail.

Oh, and another thing…I followed the recipe to the letter, even though I’m skeptical about the purpose and effect of the 13g of shortening and half an egg in the water dough. Up against 250 grams of flour, it’s hard to imagine what difference they make. Thoughts?

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I apologize for the javascript junk. I have no idea where it’s coming from and I can’t seem to get rid of it…even when I remove it, it comes back when I post… is it me, my browser addons, or something at the dope? Dunno…

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An egg answer is that whipping the eggs to mix in the sugar tends to make them fluff when cooked, a simple syrup is probably easier to add without whipping extra air into the egg mixture.

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Re javascript:
(ETA: Zyada pointed out to me that it’s HTML that only happens to mention javascript.)

I’m no expert in this stuff, but I’ve seen similar problems before in a non-Web situation.

Are you using an external or extended editor instead of the one included in the board? Is it set up to create HTML files? Are those words bolded/italicized/underlined? If so, cut-and-paste might be carrying along the other editor’s formatting commands and confusing the one here. I’ve done the same sort of thing myself with mismatched word processor file formats, and try my best to import only plain text; I know that works. Then if I want SFX on parts of the document, I’ll apply the formatting manually at the destination.

(Dammit! Now I’m interested!)

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I read the parenthetical in the title as ‘egg farts’.

Those can be pretty bad.