There are few things more authentically South African than the classic “Melktert”. Ask any expat wistfully dreaming of the things they miss from home and it will surely be near the top of the list. The 27th February has officially / unofficially been declared National Milk Tart Day. So today we celebrate this comforting SA favourite. A light dessert that’s easy to make and easy to find, at least locally.
There are many ways to interpret milk tart and everyone has a favourite version. I’m going to share my Mom’s recipe with you today. It’s not something she makes often. Milk tart is just way too easy to buy from just about anywhere in Cape Town. But there’s definitely something more rewarding about doing the homemade version in favour of store bought. This base is thicker than most of the ones you will buy ready made. You can roll it thinner and make it stretch across 2 smaller tart plates if you want.
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Classic Milk Tart
Author: Hungry for Halaal
Recipe type: Dessert Cuisine: South African
Prep time: 40 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 1 hour
Serves: 6 to 8
A classic and comforting South African favourite custard based tart.
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup Cake Flour
- 1 cup Self Raising Flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 125g butter
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- pinch salt
- pinch cinnamon
Filling
- 2 cups milk
- 1 egg
- ½ Tbsp butter
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1¼ Tbsp cake flour
- 1¼ Tbsp corn flour
- pinch salt
- pinch cinnamon
- pinch cardomom
Instructions
For the Crust:
- Preheat oven to 180˚C.
- Beat butter and sugar till creamy. Add egg and beat. Add rest of crust ingredients and knead together well. Or blits the whole lot in a food processor till the dough comes together.
- Roll out to fit a large sized tart plate. About 28cm.
- Press into the pie plate. Prick all over with a fork.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
For the Filling:
- Heat milk to almost boiling. Add the butter.
- Beat egg and add the other filling ingredients to the beaten egg.
- Pour over some of the warmed milk to loosen the mixture and pour the mixture into the pot with the rest of the milk. Allow to come to a boil and thicken while stirring.
- Pour the mixture into the shell.
- Sprinkle with some cinnamon.
- Bake another 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven and cool.
This is great if it stands overnight to set even more.
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