Milk Tart

Friendies!!!! It’s Milk Tart time. Melk Tert! Oh yes! I always thought milk tart was one of those South African dishes that was difficult to make. I mean it involved making pastry and baking blind and boiling milk and all those scary things.

Eeeeeeeeeeek!!!

And therefore, it was only natural to stay clear of making it or even attempting it, for my entire adult life.

BUT. THEN. I looked at my most popular recipes on the website and yes, milk tart was one of them. And then I looked at the recipe (a hand me down family recipe) and screwed my nose up at it whilst thinking silently *yes you can do it. You can make pastry and bake blind and boil milk*, with the accompanying facial expression of the All Blacks doing the haka.

As you can tell I gave myself a real talking to. Sometimes one needs to do that to oneself.

AND. I also saw how amateur my original photo looked (of the milk tart my friend made using the recipe – she rocks the recipe – I just took an okay photo of it) and that was a good enough reason to throw myself at the task of making milk tart!

I also discovered that the recipe really needed a little more explaining, so what you see below is the updated version and updated pictures…

For example, you gotta cook that pastry base blind (which means once you’ve put the pastry in the dish, you bake blind by placing a piece of wax paper in the dish, putting beans or rice on top ie. To weight the pastry down) and cooking for 15 minutes on 180C and then another 5 minutes without the wax paper and beans/rice.

You should also chill the pastry (in the refrigerator) before cooking it, for about 15-30 minutes. Did you know that? But if we’re going to keep things simple, which is what this website is about, then you can go ahead and leave that part out. Nooooo problem!

Whilst I was making the actual filling, I must admit it was a little scary. It felt like I was attempting fudge or something. But it is way less scary than that. In fact it is so NOT scary. My 3 year old who didn’t want to go to sleep was in the kitchen with me and he required a running commentary as well as visuals every 2 minutes which meant picking him up to show him the mixing bowl. You cant do that when you’re making summin scary. It was even relaxing.

I’m telling you.

And you can do it too.

And then you will tell your friends how un-scary it is too.

And a trend will be borne.

So the other important point here is the thickening part. Don’t get all “big-eyes” on me. I just said it aint scary!

Once you’ve combined the egg and the milk mixture together, return to the stove and allow it to thicken on medium heat. It should take approximately 10-12 minutes. Keep stirring…don’t scrape the bottom of the pot though otherwise you may land up with bits of milk that have solidified.

Once it’s nice and thick….pour it into the pastry shell. Allow to cool slightly (ie. Until you can’t see the steam coming off) and then place in the fridge to chill and set. It doesn’t need to cook any further. When you’re ready to serve it, sprinkle cinnamon over the top.

Enjoy, all to yourself or with friends.

Note: I used a 26cm diameter pie dish and I still had pastry left over.

Milk Tart

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• Author: Louise
• Total Time: 50 minutes

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Ingredients

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Pastry:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 egg
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 125g butter
• pinch of salt

Filling:

• 4 ½ cups milk
• 2 ½ tbsp cornflour
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• pinch of salt
• 2 ½ tbsp flour
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• a big spoon of butter

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Instructions

Pastry:

1. Cream butter and sugar well together and add the egg, before beating well.
2. Add all other ingredients – making a stiff dough.
3. Press into one or two round cake tins/pie dishes.
4. Bake blind for 15 minutes at 180°C (use wax paper to cover the pastry and place dry beans/rice over the paper to weight the pastry down). Then remove the paper and beans/rice and bake for an additional 5 minutes until light brown.

Filling:

1. Bring milk to a gentle boil.
2. Beat eggs well and add sugar, flour, cornflour and salt.
3. Mix well.
4. Pour boiling milk into the mixture and stir well.
5. Return to stove and stir for 10-12 minutes on medium heat until the mixture thickens.
6. Add butter and vanilla essence and mix through, then pour into cooked shell.
7. Allow to cool in the fridge (you do not need to cook the tart any further)
8. To decorate, sprinkle with cinnamon.

Notes

I used a 26cm diameter pie dish and I still had pastry left over.

• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes