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Traditional Milktart

South African Milk Tart

Also know as "Melktert". It's a flaky pastry dough filled with a sweet cinnamon milk custard that's finished off with a dusting of cinnamon.
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Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Cape Dutch, Dutch, South African
Keyword: dessert, melktert, milk tart, milktart, recipes, south african, tart, traditional food
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 1 day
Servings: 8
Author: The Big Tasty Bite

Ingredients

Pastry

  • 125 grams butter room temperature, see note 1
  • 120 grams castor sugar see note 2
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1-2 cups raw rice or beans

Custard Filling

  • 2 cups full cream milk
  • ½ cup cream
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ cup light brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • ⅛ tsp salt
  • 1 ½ tbsp butter
  • 1-2 tsp ground cinnamon garnish

Instructions

Pastry

  • Preheat your oven to 180℃/240℉. Use a 24cm tart tin with a removable base & coat with a non-stick spray.
  • Add butter and castor to a large bowl. Using an electric mixer or some elbow grease, creamed the butter and sugar until creamed. Add the egg, and mix until roughly combined.
  • Add the flour & baking powder together & mix until a stiff dough forms. It should come together quite quickly. The dough is extremely easy to handle. Press the dough evenly into the tart tin.
  • Dock the pastry base using a fork and prepare your pastry to be blind-baked by covering it with baking paper and pouring the rice /beans on top to ensure it doesn't rise. Note: crunch the baking paper into a ball before gently placing into the dough and pouring the dry rice or beans in. This'll prevent the paper from poking the dough.
  • Blind-bake for 30 min or until the pastry is golden and crispy.

Custard Filling

  • Make the filling whilst the pastry is baking. Line a medium saucepan with butter - this'll prevent the milk mixture from burning around the edges of the saucepan. Add the milk, cream, and cinnamon stick to the medium saucepan and bring to a light simmer.
  • In a separate medium-sized bowl add the sugar, flour, cornstarch, vanilla essence, egg, and salt together and mix well.
  • Remove the milk mixture from the heat once it has started boiling and discard the cinnamon stick.
  • Temper the egg mixture by gradually pouring the warm milk mixture in to the egg mixture, stirring vigorously. Bring the milk mixture back to the heat and allow to simmer until thickened whilst stirring. Once thickened, add the butter and stir until combined.
  • By now the pastry should be done baking. Remove the baking paper/rice and pour the warm filling into the baked pastry shell & smooth the surface (I leave it in the tart tin until fully set).
  • Sprinkle over the cinnamon and place int the fridge to set overnight.

Notes

  1. Butter: If you use unsalted butter then I'd recommend you add the salt in the pastry and the filling as this balances the dessert beautifully. If your using salted butter then omit the added salt.
  2. Sugar: castor sugar or powdered sugar can be used but take note, if you are using powdered sugar than adjust the to 85g and not 120g. I wouldn't recommend using regular granulated sugar as it won't mix as well. The smaller the granule the better the pastry's texture will be. You can also ground granulated sugar until it resembles castor or powdered sugar.
  3. Filling: the listed filling is delivers the perfect pastry to custard ratio, but if you prefer for there to be more filling than I'd recommend you double the filling's measurements. Also, make sure to press the edges of the pastry a tad higher so that the filling won't over flow.
  4. Storage: The tart will keep in the fridge for 3 days but only place it in the fridge once it has fully cooled otherwise it'll crack. I wouldn't recommend freezing.