RECIPE
Milk Tart, Traditionally South African
It reminds you of custard pie but is more delicate and ‘milky’
Being a born and bred South African, it won’t surprise you I had my fair share of milk tarts in the twenty-eight years I lived in my country of birth. Now I have been in The Netherlands for 27+ years, and in those years, I might’ve had it about five times.
Why?
Because I can’t bake.
No matter how meticulously I follow a recipe, my baking is always a failure. The taste is good, but that’s about it. It’s actually a running joke in the family that my baking never succeeds.
An aunt of mine is a fabulous baker. She has always been a housewife, and I remember times from my childhood when her kitchen was filled with jars and jars full of different cookies. One question could be heard several times a day: “May we have a cookie?”
Her milk tart — melktert in Afrikaans — was the best. Whenever we visited, she always had milk tart, sometimes even two, so everyone could have second helpings. It wasn’t only then that I ate it, as my parents both made it too, so it was something we regularly had.
Incidentally, the Dutch settlers introduced this sweet pie with its milk-based filling to Cape The Good Hope back in the 17th century, and the Cape Malay added the traditional cinnamon flavor.
Nowadays, if I want milk tart, I either have to ask my daughter (thank god she can bake!) to make it, or we buy it at a South African shop in the middle of the country.
The milk tart recipe
Ingredients Milk Tart Crust
* 500 grams of butter * 500 grams of flour * 1 teaspoon cream of tartar * 200 milliliters soda water * 2 metric sips of brandy
Method Milk Tart Crust
1. Sift the flour and cream of tartar into one bowl. 2. Grate the butter and mix it with the flour. 3. Add brandy and soda water together to the flour mixture. 4. Knead into a dough and keep in the fridge overnight. 5. Let the dough soften the next morning at room temperature. 6. Roll out on a floured surface to a 1/2 centimeter thickness. 7. Fold the pie dough and place it in the fridge for 20 minutes. 8. Grease a pie dish with butter. 9. Roll out the dough on a floured surface. 10. Line the pie dish with dough and pinch the edge in a drop pattern. 11. Fill the dough with dry beans to ensure the dough keeps its shape. 12. Bake the crust at 200 degrees Celsius for 10–15 minutes. 13. Allow to cool and scoop out the beans.
Ingredients Milk Tart Filling
* 1 liter milk * 10 spoons of cornflour * 1 cinnamon stick * pinch of salt * 6 teaspoons of sugar * 6 teaspoons of butter * 4 eggs
Method Milk Tart Filling
1. Make a smooth paste of the cornflour in a bit of milk in a cup. 2. Heat the rest of the milk in a saucepan along with the cinnamon, sugar, salt, and butter. 3. Separate the eggs and beat the egg yolks separately. 4. Gradually add the hot milk and mix thoroughly. 5. Stir in the dissolved cornflour. 6. Return the mixture to the saucepan and heat slowly. 7. Stir thoroughly until the mixture thickens. 8. Beat the egg whites separately tightly and fold them into the hot mixture. 9. Pour the filling into the baked crust. 10. Bake for 1 hour at 140 degrees Celsius. 11. Remove and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. 12. Cool until it solidifies.
Notes
If you don’t want to make the crust from scratch, you can use ready-made puff pastry.
You can also make the milk tart without the crust, but to be honest, the crust really adds something to it. There are several recipes for crustless milk tart to be found on the Internet.
Another traditional South African recipe:
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