Dalgona Coffee Custard Meringue Tart

Finally posting my tart recipe! I submitted this to our department cookbook competition and won. Yay! I became so obsessed with the tiktok craze dalgona coffee and had to experiment putting it into desserts. I'm still making dalgona coffee at work!

Dalgona Coffee Custard Meringue Tart

makes one 8-9" tart

Shortbread base
1 cup flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp finely ground instant coffee
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

Coffee Custard + Meringue
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp flour
2/3 cup half and half
2 tsp instant coffee or espresso
2/3 cup brewed strong coffee
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
3 tbsp butter, in cubes
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 egg whites
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
4 tbsp granulated sugar

Dalgona coffee whip
2 tbsp instant coffee
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp hot water

• Shortbread crust: 

1. Butter 8-9" tart pan. In a large food processor, pulse together flour, instant coffee, salt and powdered sugar to mix. 
2. Scatter cold butter and pulse continuously until dough comes together into large clumps. The mixture does became very loose and sandy before dough starts to clump together
3. Dump dough clumps into your tart pan and using your fingertips, press dough up the sides of the pan thinly (especially in corners where it tends to get thick) and spread to cover the bottom too. Use the back of your spoon to smooth the surface
4. Using a fork, pierce bottom of the crust several times. Cover and place in freezer for 15 mins or in the fridge overnight to chill
5. Preheat oven to 425F and bake crust for 10-12 minutes or until slightly golden brown. Allow to cool completely

• Coffee Custard + meringue:

1. Preheat oven to 375F. In a medium saucepan on medium heat, mix together sugar, flour, salt, instant coffee and stir in half/half and hot coffee. Cook until slightly thickened while whisking constantly (about 3-5mins)
2. In a small bowl with the egg yolks, add a few tbsps of the hot coffee mixture to temper the eggs and quickly stir to prevent curdling/cooking. Then add the egg yolks to the saucepan and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla extract until well incorporated
4. Pour/spread into your cooked tart crust and bake in oven for 10 mins
5. For the meringue: using an electric whisk/mixer, beat egg whites until foamy. Add salt, cream of tartar and then beat sugar in 1 tbsp at a time until meringue is stiff and shiny. Spread or pipe over the baked tart filling (ok if warm)
6. You can use a kitchen torch to scorch meringue or place in oven also at 375F for 5-10 minutes until lightly golden. Allow baked tart to cool to room temp and then into the fridge to firm up for an hour

• Dalgona coffee whip:

1. This is to be made before serving as it can deflate throughout the day due to the water content. You can also eliminate the water and whisk only instant coffee + 1 tbsp sugar to half the meringue batter and bake at step 6 above. 
2. If making before serving with water: In a medium bowel, stir hot water with instant coffee and sugar. Using an electric whisk, beat until light tan/brown, stiff and can hold it's peak. Pipe in between meringue on tart 

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Matcha Checkerboard Shortbread Cookies

Ummah 엄마 - that's what mothers are called in Korean. And I love my ummah and she loves me like crazy (well... most of the time :P). When I lived at home before college, I wanted to get out of the house as soon as possible. My mum was one of those tiger mum types. If I slept at midnight, she'd yell and tell me that while I was sleeping there were other kids up way past 2am with bleeding noses because they were studying so hard. My mum expected us to use encyclopedias as pillows and to study until the crack of dawn. Every night, she would camp out on the living room sofa and my sister and I would come out of our rooms to study on the living room table so she could keep an eye out on us. Of course, by 11pm she'd be fast asleep on the couch, except you could never tell because she sleeps with her eyes open!

Sometimes, we'd take turns to wave a hand in front of her face and make sure she's sleeping. If we were lucky, we would hop straight into bed and then hear our mum a few hours later waking up groggily and walking back to her room :P. We'd hold our breaths until we heard the squeak of her mattress sink under her weight. Sometimes, we weren't so lucky in our endeavors... And when you have a mother who sings soprano at a Korean community church, you can be sure you'll be hearing that voice for miles. Thinking about it, my sister and I probably really needed an iron fist when it comes to studying, because we were such lazy kids haha...

Despite the draconian studying, our mum was always looking out for us. Every summer when I left Hong Kong for Houston, I lugged two very full suitcases; one filled with my clothes and another filled with all my favorite home-cooked foods. She was always so worried I would starve myself even if I was already on a meal plan in college. Needless to say, my suitcases were always overweight or needed extra time in security, because I was carrying stinky things like kimchi (scared the sniffing dogs) or suspiciously dense frozen blocks of Korean rice cakes. By the time I was going to graduate, I had enough food left over in the freezer for a zombie apocalypse. But, now I'm so grateful that she can still cook and pack food for me :D

Mum - I love you and thank you that you've always been there for me.

Happy Mother's Day!

Matcha Checkerboard Shortbread Cookies

1-1/4 stick butter, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup flour
1 pinch salt
3 tsp PANATEA matcha

1. Beat softened butter until light and fluffy. Cream together powdered sugar, yolks and vanilla. Mix flour and salt to the butter mixture until a lumpy dough starts to form. Using your hands, press the lumps and knead until dough is smooth.
2. Separate dough into 2 balls. Knead matcha into one ball until it is uniformly green. Separate each ball in half again.
3. For each ball, roll/pat into a long cylinder about 12" and then pat to make 4 sides (like a long square). Arrange them on top of each other to make a chessboard and pat lightly together.
4. Wrap firmly in seran wrap and pat lightly on a flat surface to make the dough log more square.
5. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
6. Preheat oven to 360F. With a sharp knife, cut out 1/4" cookies and lay on a baking sheet with parchment paper.
7. Bake for 9-12mins or until slightly browning on the edges.
8. Let cool for at least 5 minutes.

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