Milk Tart (Melktert)

Good old fashioned comforting childhood memories wouldn’t be complete without milk tart.  Fabulous – well, until I had to make 3 different variations to find what I was happy with.  Childhood memories aren’t always that easy to recreate.  Not that the first two attempts weren’t nice, they just weren’t what I wanted.  They lacked the silky smooth texture I craved.  Also, most recipes make two tarts and I only wanted to make one plus I found baking the tart higher than 180°C caused it to crack.  Round three was perfect.

Milk Tart (Melktert)

Ingredients

For the Pastry

2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs sugar
1 egg
¾ cup self raising flour
¼ tsp salt

For the Tart

2 cups milk
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup flour
¼ tsp salt
2 Tbs butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs well beaten
Ground cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Blitz all the pastry ingredients together in a food processor until they resemble crumbs and spread evenly and press in a 24cm pie dish.
   (The crust can be refrigerated while preparing the tart but I don’t bother)
3. Heat the milk to just before boiling.
4. While the milk is heating, combine the sugar, flour and salt together.
5. Gradually add the heated milk to the dry ingredients and return to the heat.
6. Cook slowly while stirring until the mixture thickens.
7. Remove from the heat and add the butter and vanilla.
8. Cool the mixture slightly and stir through the beaten egg and pour into the pastry crust.
9. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.  The center will still be slightly soft and wobbly.
10. Cool and try only eat one slice. 🙂