Hokkaido Cheese Tarts

Homemade Hokkaido cheese tarts – shortcrust pastry shells filled with an incredible cheese filling. A very popular and addictive Asian dessert.

What are Hokkaido Tarts?

The Hokkaido cheese tarts are mini shortcrust tart shells filled with a delicious, fluffy, sweet yet slightly savory cheese filling.

They originate in a bakery in Sapporo, the capital of the Hokkaido region in the North of Japan. The region is well-known for its milk and dairy farms, producing over 50% of Japan’s milk and about 90% of its natural cheeses.

The first Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tarts stores were opened in Malaysia not a long time ago, only in 2016. The mini-pies quickly became hugely popular and now there are stores selling them all over the world.

And if you would like more Japanese food, you could try Okonomiyaki or Tonkatsu Sandwiches.

What do you need?

Pastry: all-purpose flour, icing sugar, salt, butter, one egg yolk and cold water – typical pastry ingredients.

Filling: mascarpone, cream cheese, yogurt, milk, unsalted butter, salt and vanilla extract, icing sugar, cornstarch and one egg – nothing fancy either.

Egg brush: egg yolk and a little milk.

How to make Hokkaido cheese tarts?

Make the pastry

• Place flour, icing sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse shortly to combine.
• Add the very cold, cubed butter and pulse a couple of times to combine. Add egg yolk and cold water and pulse a few times more to combine. Don't overmix, you should still be able to see very small pieces of butter in the pastry. This ensures that the pastry will be flaky. (1)
• Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for one hour. Or you can make the pastry up to 3 days in advance and keep it refrigerated. (2)
• The pastry also freezes well.

Make the cheese filling:

• To make the bain-marie, I place the bowl with the ingredients on top of a pot with water. The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl. (1)
• Place mascarpone, cream cheese, yogurt, milk, and salt in the bowl used for the bain-marie. Slowly heat the mixture on bain-marie stirring almost constantly until everything is combined. (2)
• Sift the icing sugar and the cornstarch over the mixture, add the vanilla extract and the egg and whisk continuously until the mixture thickens. The mixture is thick enough when you can see the traces left by the whisk in the mixture. (3)
• Remove from the heat and pour the filling into a large bowl. (4)
• Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the mixture, it will prevent it from forming unpleasant skin. (5)
• Let cool completely. (6)

What baking pans to use?

• The pastry will be enough for 12 mini-tart pans of about 10 cm/ 4 inches, I use some with removable bottom, they are just amazing.
• The only problem is that I only have a set of six, definitely need to get another one.
• So, I had six pies of the above-mentioned size, eight Hokkaido cheese tarts baked in silicone muffin molds of about 7 cm/ 3 inches diameter, and one larger one baked in a 12 cm/ 4.7 inches silicone pie mold. I loved the way they looked on the serving platter, the different sizes made them particularly appealing.
• You can definitely bake the tarts in a regular muffin pan, which you should grease well before adding the rolled pastry.

How to roll and bake the pastry?

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/ 350 degrees Fahrenheit before you start working with the dough.
• Divide the dough into 12 pieces and form little balls.
• Roll each ball on a lightly floured surface into circles that are slightly larger than the tart pan you are using. (1)
• Carefully press the dough circles down into the tart pans so that it lines its bottom and sides, then cut out the excess.
• Poke the bottom with a fork. (2)
• Place the tart forms on a baking tray.
• Bake for about 10 minutes or until the pastry is lightly golden. Leave to cool slightly in the pans.

Fill and bake again

• Increase the oven temperature to 230 degrees Celsius/ 445 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Fill each pastry shell with the filling.
• Whisk the egg yolk and the milk in a small bowl and brush the filling with the mixture.

• Place the tray with the tarts in the hot oven and bake for another 5-8 minutes until the filling turns very golden with a few darker spots here and there.
• If the darker spots don't appear in the oven, you can turn on the grill shortly. Keep an eye on them all the time, they should not burn. The spots are not mandatory, perfectly golden pies are great as well.
• Remove the tray from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.

How to serve?

You can serve the Hokkaido cheese tarts either warm or at room temperature. Once completely cool, store them in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

More mini-tarts and pies:

• How to Make Tart Shells
• Raspberry Tartlets
• Lemon Curd Tartlets
• Mini Blueberry Tarts
• Mini Fruit Tarts