Milk Tart

Milk Tart
Milk tart, or Melktert, is a pale, creamy custard tart dusted with cinnamon. It's a very popular South African pudding and you can buy it at any grocery store in SA. I haven't met anyone who doesn't love it!

It's just the right amount of sweetness and not too rich which makes it perfect to go with afternoon tea or coffee or a treat after lunch. I'll admit to even having a slice for breakfast! In fact, I could probably finish off a whole tart in one sitting *blush* (not that I've ever done that! Yet...) :)

Coffee time!

Reading the ingredients you might think it looks quite plain, and there are other variations floating around the net, like adding peaches etc, but in my opinion, it's perfect the way it is. Uncomplicated, moreish and delicious. Milk tart can be made with different types of crusts or even crustless, but there are 2 kinds of milk tart, one has a baked filling while the other's custard filling is set by chilling in the fridge.

Delicious custard, just give me a spoon already!

I prefer the set-in-fridge type which my mom in law makes, I begged her for her recipe and here it is! If you've never had it before, you'll see why I call it Moms' Magic Milk Tart. Although I admit that I've made a slight tweak (sorry Moms!), the original recipe calls for more sugar in the filling but I prefer it less sweet so I've halved the sugar in the custard and added a little more to the pastry. It makes 2 tarts which may seem like a lot, but I promise you, they won't be around for long :)

Milk tart made with extra filling in flan dishes

Ingredients

Pastry:

2 cups Plain Flour

¾ cup Sugar

125g Margarine

1 Egg

2 tsp Baking Powder

Filling:

1 litre Full Fat Milk

½ cup Sugar

2 Eggs

1 Tbsp Unsalted Butter

2½ Tbsp Plain Flour

2½ Tbsp Cornflour

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Ground Cinnamon for sprinkling

Method

Crust:

• Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted)
• Cream the margarine and sugar together
• Add the egg and beat well
• Sift flour and baking powder and add to egg mixture, mix well
• Press into 2 9-inch pie dishes (foil flan dishes work well too)
• Bake for 10-15mins until the crust is just turning brown but is still pale

Filling:

• Bring milk and butter to the boil
• Mix rest of ingredients to a smooth paste
• Once milk comes to the boil, remove from heat and slowly pour in other ingredients, whisking slowly to avoid lumps
• Return to heat and mix until thick
• Pour into 2 baked shells and sprinkle with cinnamon
• Refrigerate until chilled

Fancy it up using stencils

  Adapted from a recipe given to me by my mom-in-law :)

Can be made a day ahead.

I like to make my milk tarts in pie/flan dishes with high sides, there's enough pastry for it and that way I can also make extra filling, and more filling = more yumminess! Increase the filling by half the amount of the recipe.

This can also be made into single serving mini tartlets, simply grease and press the pastry into a muffin tin.

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Comments

[Lina Merryweather]

I've made this so many times, it's unbelievably good! Nostalgic milky sweet and perfect :) AND it took away my fear of making custard. Amazing recipe, thank you!