baked cheese tarts

[Guest Cheese Tarts]

Five must-try baked cheese tarts

May 29, 2016 12.00PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by Wan Ting Koh

WITH the salted egg yolk food craze barely over, another has risen to take its place. Now it’s all about cheese – or more specifically, the baked cheese tart. With the arrival of Bake Cheese Tarts from Hokkaido, Japan, the preference for these tarts, comprising of a lava cheese filling surrounded by pastry, has only intensified. Long queues greeted the opening of Bake, which set up shop in the basement of Ion Orchard, late last month.

To make your life easier, we rounded up five baked cheese tarts we think you ought to try, and the reasons to try them.

1. THE CLING-ON: Prima Deli

Prima Deli boasts two flavours of cheese tarts for less than $3 each. Photo taken from Prima Deli’s Facebook page.

A homegrown venture, Prima Deli pushed out its own version of the cheese tart – the Lava Cheese Tart – on April 8. However, staying true to the salted egg yolk trend, the bakery spun off a salted yolk flavoured cheese tart in addition to the original. The original is priced at $2.40, while the salted egg yolk version is slightly more expensive, at $2.80.

Prima Deli claims to sell more than 7,000 of its lava cheese tarts across its 40 outlets daily. The executive director of the company which owns the bakery, Prima Limited, told STthat the team started working on its own version in January this year after noticing the craze in Hong Kong last August. Mr Lewis Cheng, 45, said of the salted egg yolk flavour: “With salted egg yolk croissants and cheese tarts trending in the region, we decided to marry the two products, given that cheese and salted egg yolk are compatible in taste and texture.”

Demand is so high that Prima Deli has to ration its distribution of tarts to outlets and is looking into air-freighting some of its key ingredients from Europe.

Address: 40 outlets across Singapore, including at 1 Changi Business Park (#01-25), and one at Bukit Panjang Plaza (#01-55).

2. THE ROYALTY: Antoinette

The Queen’s Cheese Tart from Antoinette is made of various different cheeses. Photo taken from Antoinette’s Facebook page.

Antoinette has just pushed out its ultimate creation, The Queen’s Cheese Tart. It is made of a whooping seven different cheeses in a molten mix: provolone, reblochon, gruyere, cream cheese, mascarpone, cheddar and parmesan. Made available last Wednesday (May 25), these cheese tarts are being sold for $3.20.

Apart from cheese tart royalty, the French Patisserie rolled out not one but five flavours of the baked cheese tart: vanilla, matcha, salted egg yolk, salted caramel and grand gru chocolate, late last month. It was reportedly so popular that Antoinette sold 250 tarts in the first two days of launching them. When we called their Penhas Road branch on a Wednesday evening, only 10 pieces were left.

Antoinette has tried to carve out a niche for itself by using puff pastry cups rather than cookie-based pastries like its competitors. The filling, providing a contrast to the crispness, comprises of cream and mascarpone cheese. The bakery prices its cheese tarts at between $2.60 and $3 for the different flavours. Originally available only at the Penhas Road branch, Antoinette now stocks the product at its Mandarin Gallery branch too.

Address: Mandarin Gallery (#02-33/3) and 30 Penhas Road

 

3. THE HEARTLANDER:  Bun Master 

Bun Master sells their Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart for $2.20 a piece. Photo by TMG/Wan Ting Koh.

Nestled mostly in the neighbourhood suburbs, such as Ang Mo Kio Hub, Blk 192 of Toa Payoh Lorong 4, and Tanjong Pagar Plaza, this homey bakery recently pushed out its baked cheese tart, jumping on the bandwagon with its higher profile counterparts. A sign on top of its counter at Ang Mo Kio Hub advertises the tart as the “Hokkaido Cheese Tart”, which has a filling of “half-cooked cheese”. Priced at $2.20 per tart and $4 for two tarts, the Hokkaido Cheese Tart looks not unlike your Portuguese egg tarts – but with a cookie-like base.

Address: Ang Mo Kio Hub (#B2-26), Toa Payoh Lorong 4, Blk 192 (#01-672), Tanjong Pagar Plaza

 

4. THE TRIPLE FLAVOUR:  The Icing Room

The Icing Room’s cheese tarts come in three different flavours and go for $2 apiece. Photo taken from The Icing Room’s Facebook page.

Launched on April 8 as well, the baked cheese tart from Icing Room was said to have been sold out within two hours of its launch. The tart, which resembles the traditional egg tart, comes in three flavours, the original, golden lava salted egg yolk custard flavor, and tiramisu. Speaking to ST, a spokesman from the BreakTalk group, which owns Icing Room, said that the cheese tarts are an extension of its tart series, which was launched in August 2014 at its Toast Box Chain. Ingredients used in the filling include Italian mascarpone cheese, New Zealand cheese, and fresh Hokkaido milk. The delights are priced at $2, with one tart free for every three bought.

Address: The Icing Room has two outlets at Jurong Point (#B1-105), and Nex (#B2-58). The original and golden lava flavours are available in BreadTalk shops at Paragon (#B1-11) and 313@Somerset (#B2-31), Bread Society at Ion Orchard (#B4-08) and Toast Box at Suntec City (#B1-167).  

 

5. THE PRICIEST: Bake

Bake cheese tart fillings are made of three different cheese. Photo by Flickr user Norio Nakayama. CC BY 2.0.

Arguably the one that started it all – all the way from Japan. Hailing from Hokkaido, Bake arrived on our shores on April 29 with as much fanfare as a cheese tart could possibly get. Its only product for sale is also its star item, the Bake Cheese Tart. Priced at a hefty $3.50 for a tart no bigger than your palm, the Bake cheese tart has a mousse-like cream cheese filling made of three different cream cheeses – two from Hokkaido and one from France – surrounded by a crisp pastry that goes through the oven twice before they are sold each day. On the day of the opening, the bakery reportedly had a two hour long waiting time for those in the queue. Apart from its nine outlets in Japan, Bake has also found success with its cheese tarts in Hong Kong, Seoul and even Bangkok. For its opening here, the shop prepared 4,000 tarts in anticipation of demand and customers could buy a box of six for $19.50.

When we visited at around 2pm on a Thursday (May 26), almost a month after the outlet’s initial launch, the queue was still going strong, with between 30 and 40 customers comprising tourists and locals queuing with a waiting time of around one and a half hours. One of those in the line, Ms Judy Chew, had tried the tart in Bangkok and was queuing for the first time in Singapore for her husband who had yet to try it. “The filling is smooth and it is different from the usual egg tart,” she said of the cheese tart.

Is the tart worth the queue? Only if you have nothing else to do, said the 40-year-old, who works in a bank. “If the opportunity arises, then I will buy the tarts. The queue is quite short today and I was mentally prepared to wait at least two hours,” she added. She told us she would be buying 12 – the maximum per customer – for her friends and elderly parents at home. “I am not working [today] so I have the time.”

Address: Ion Orchard (#B4-33). Daily 10am-10pm.

 

 

Other cheese tarts

1. Patisserie Glace

With a similar consistency to cheesecake, the Rin Rin ice cheese tart from this bakery comes in a total of 12 sweet flavours: yuzu, chocolate, Earl Grey, caramel, green tea, strawberry, Japanese rock melon, mango, raspberry, and original. The base of the tart is made of cookie. Each cheese tart goes for $3.50 and the bakery currently has a promotion – buy eight cheese tarts of any flavour and get one green tea cheese tart for free.

Address: 5 branches at Icon Village (#01-31/32), Marina Bay Link Mall (#B2-65), Republic Plaza (#01-16), Square 2 (#04-78/79), GB Point (#01-09)

2. Flor Patisserie

With a lightly salted creamcheese filling and an almond cookie base, the Ice Cheese tart at Flor Patisserie goes for $3.80 and comes in eight flavours: original, strawberry, Earl Grey, caramel, maple, green tea, mango and chocolate.

Address: Four outlets, including one at 2 Duxton Hill (#01-01). Opens daily 11am-9pm.

3. Crusty Oven

Crusty Oven counts the blueberry cheese tart in their petite tart range in addition to others like Cinnamon Egg Special, Dark Chocolate Mint Tart and Lemon Meringue Tart. The predecessor of the baked cheese tart, the chilled blueberry tart is flat with a signature blueberry swirl pattern on the surface of its filling. The blueberry tart used to be the star product of Bake before the company decided to serve their tarts piping hot from the oven and without the blueberry flavour.

Address: Blk 505A Bishan Street 11, #01- 442, Singapore 571505

 

Source: http://themiddleground.sg/2016/05/29/5-must-try-baked-cheese-tarts/