UFO Tarts aka Cow Dunks Tart

Staying in Australia too long made me miss my hometown delicacy, the famous Sandakan Cow Dunk Tart! So after much research, I've mixed and matched these recipes to come to the recipe below. 

Basically, there are 3 major steps to producing this tarts; the base, the meringues and the custard. So before you start anything, you've got to prepare a whoopie pie pan, 2 large bowls, 2 medium bowl, a whisk, a hand mixer (beater), a spatula and a piping bag. That way, you don't have to wash away while you are preparing.

Whoopie Pie Pan

The base:

Any butter cake recipe will do. I usually just use a recipe from taste.com.au, which has a 5 star rating from over 100s of good reviews.

Ingredients: (this is the amount for half a cake, if you want to make a cake, just double everything)

125g salted butter (at room temperature)

½ cup of caster sugar

1 tsp of vanilla essence

3 eggs

140g self-raising flour

some milk

(This is the amount for half a cake, if you want to make a cake, just double everything)

(This serve around 22-24 UFO tarts base).

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°c. 
2. Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and mix in one direction.
3. Add in the eggs and fold using a spatula. Then add the vanilla essence.
4. Fold in the flour. At this point of time, the batter will become thick, add some milk (usually around ¼ cups or less). Pour in a small amount at a time, a continue folding, until the batter easily falls off from the spatula.
   
5. Line the whoopie pie pans with a strip of baking paper (to easily lift them up later). 
6. Fill the moulds ½ way full. It will expand eventually.                                     
7. Bake for around 20-25 minutes or it turns golden brown.
8. Leave them out to cool, while cooling off, you can prepare the meringues.

The meringues:

Ingredients:

4 egg whites

8 tbs caster sugar

Method:

1. Separate the egg white from the yolks. (Use egg separator or shell-to-shell method)
2. Transfer the egg whites into a large bowl and use the hand mixer to beat it at low speed. When eggs turns foamy and bubbly, increase to high speed. Beat until when you lift the hand mixer, it creates a peaks that falls back. Do not overbeat them, they will break down and liquidify again.                   
3. Incorporate the sugar tbs by tbs and continue beating.
4. Most imiportant: Do it all at one go, no breaks to check on your tart base, etc.
5. Fill the piping bag with the meringues, a pipe to create a wall on top of the base. There will be some left over at this point. Next to the custard... 
   
   

Custard filling:

Ingredients:

400ml milk

4 egg yolks

110g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

4 tbs corn flour

40g unsalted butter + a pinch of salt (this is what the recipe calls for, but I substitute this with salted butter)

Method:

1. Whisk egg yolks, 60ml (¼ cups) milk, sugar and vanilla extract. 
2. Mix in cornflour and salt (if using) in a medium bowl.
3. In a saucepan, bring the remaining milk to just below boiling point. Slowly pour the hot milk in small stream into the egg mixture while whisking constantly (very important). Mixed well and pour everything back into the saucepan.
4. Continue whisking the mixture over medium heat (Important to keep an eye as it will thicken up in a blink of an eye). Remove from heat and whisk in butter.
5. Pour mixture into a medium bowl and plunge it into a larger bowl filled with iced water and continue whisking.                                                    
6. Similarly, you can cover the medium bowl with glad wrap, cool it down and refrigerate it until ready to use.
7. Once completely cooled, pour the mixture into a piping bag and fill the tarts (inside the wall of meringues).
8. Finish off with the left over meringues, mark an X on top of the custard, or whatever your heart desires.
9. Bake the UFO tarts at a lower heat, around 140°c for another 20 minutes, or until the meringues turns golden on top.                                                

 Ta-daaa.. Homemade UFO tarts ready to satisfy your cravings.

Important Note:

1. All ingredients amount are what the original recipe calls for. Be sure to cut sugar content!
2. Personally, I cut the sugar by ½ the first time, it was still sweet. The second time, I cut them by ¾, it was OK for me, but may be too bland for you all.
3. Therefore I'm suggested somewhere in between would be nice.