Milk Tart | A Truly South Africa Recipe

~ Tandy

Inspired by Cook with 7de Laan I decided to make this week’s challenge a sweet attempt at something traditional. I have not had melktert (milk tart) for ages due to the sugar but I will make this recipe again. I would however give it a go with a sweet shortcrust pastry if I make it in summer as puff pastry and my warm house do not work well together.

milk tart
Print Recipe
No ratings yet

Milk Tart

Recipe Category: Baking, Dessert
All Rights Reserved: adapted from Cook with 7de Laan and avacodo magazine january/february 2007

Ingredients

  • 1 roll puff pastry
  • 1 quill cinnamon
  • 500 mls milk
  • 75 mls fructose
  • 1 pinch fine salt
  • 75 mls flour
  • 15 g butter
  • 2 eggs
  • ground cinnamon for dusting

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 200° Celsius
  • line a muffin tin with the puff pastry and prick holes in the bottom of the pastry shells
  • leave to rest for 10 minutes in the fridge before baking blind for 10 minutes
  • put the tin back into the fridge while you get everything else ready
  • heat the milk on the stove with the cinnamon
  • mix the fructose, salt and flour
  • just before it reaches boiling point remove the cinnamon quill
  • slowly add enough of the milk to the dry ingredients to moisten it - mix all the time and make sure there are no lumps
  • pour the flour mixture into the rest of the milk and simmer over a gentle heat until the mixture is thick, stirring occasionally
  • remove from the heat and stir in the butter
  • allow to cool
  • preheat the oven to 140? Celsius
  • separate the eggs
  • mix the egg yolks into the milk mixture
  • whisk the egg whites until they are stiff
  • fold into the milk mixture
  • ladle the milk mixture into the pastry
  • sprinkle with cinnamon
  • bake for one hour
  • the milk tart will soufflé and you will have the most divine soft tart

Click on the links for conversions and notes.

Ingredients for my milk tart

  • Puff pastry ­– I use ready to roll, all butter puff pastry if I buy it premade. I prefer to make my own, but it is time consuming and there is nothing wrong with store bought.
  • Cinnamon – if using quills, rub them between your hands to release the natural oils. If using ground be sure it is fresh and smells strongly of cinnamon.
  • Milk – I use UHT full cream milk in my recipes as this is what we use most often at home.
  • Fructose – I use fructose as I am sucrose intolerant. All my recipes are gram for gram replaceable with sugar.
  • Salt – I use salt sourced from the Kalahari Desert. It is very salty so my recipes accommodate this. Adjust seasoning to suit your palate for savoury dishes only.
  • Flour – in South Africa, flour refers to cake flour which is not the same as the American All Purpose flour.
  • Butter – I use unsalted butter for my recipes, unless stated. If you use salted butter be sure to adjust the amount of salt you add to the recipe.
  • Eggs – I buy free range extra-large eggs which in South Africa weigh between 59 and 66 grams (shell on weight).

p.s. the gooseberries were picked for me by Taylor – thank you sweetie so much. They are now going to be planted in my garden

Top of Page