Don't Go Breaking My Tart! Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart

restaurant

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart or HBCT originated from Malaysia with the ST group that also own PappaRich and has grown a steady customer base for these cheese tarts.

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart

The key to these tarts is the balance between sweet and salty and the interplay with the silky smooth custard and the crisp tart base. The pastry is short and crisp while the centre is gooey, oozy and rich.

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart

Glazing the tarts with egg glaze

The first Sydney location opened in December 2016 on the lower ground level of World Square. The tarts are baked every few hours and customers eat them one of three ways: hot out of the oven, cold or frozen (where the cheese custard becomes like a creamy popsicle).

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart

Around 2,000 of these tarts are sold every day at $3.90 a pop. A box of 6 of them comes in a well packed box that allows the tarts to arrive home in good condition.

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart

At the moment the tarts are filled in the Melbourne location and they are shipped frozen to Sydney where they brush the tarts with egg glaze before they are baked from frozen in the oven for 12 minutes.

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart

Tarts cooling after baking

They then cool for around 8 minutes on a cooling rack where the pastry becomes more cohesive with more of a snap rather than a crumble. Then they are snatched up by customers. We overhear a man walking past with two colleagues and he asks them, "Have you tried one? They're amaaazing".

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart

The blend of three cheeses is a closely guarded secret. Unable to import Hokkaido's famed cheese due to time and cost restrictions they have devised their own blend of three Australian cheeses designed to mimic the Hokkaido cheese tart.

How they make the Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tarts

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart

Many like to split open the burnished top (the darkly caramelised ones are the most popular) and eat it warm from the oven. You can also pop these in the oven at 180C/350F for 8 minutes when you get home to get that trademark ooziness.

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart

And the million dollar question? Each tart is reportedly around 190 calories-less than a chocolate bar or a packet of chips! You know I had to ask ;)

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart

So tell me Dear Reader, have you tried one of these cheese tarts? Would you go for lightly caramelised or darkly?

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart

5b/644 George St, Sydney NSW 2000 (basement level)
www.facebook.com/hokkaidoau/

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart