Milk tart or melktert is a classic South African dessert. A favourite of ours since our undergrad years in Cape Town, we could think of no better dessert for the upcoming Heritage Day. Crisp flaky crust and silky cinnamon-y custard filling, what’s not to love?
A traditional melktert has a flaky puff pastry base into which a custard filling is baked. However, we make a bit of a cheat’s milk tart comprising of a sweet crust pastry shell and a light custard filling which is cooked separately. Our version is far from authentic, but nonetheless delicious.
For our take on the milk tart, we infuse the custard filling with Ceylon-style cinnamon. We introduced Ceylon cinnamon to our cooking following Vinasha’s trip to the Malaysian island of Penang. At the Tropical Spice Gardens of Penang (painted on the postcard below), a guide carefully explained the properties of Ceylon cinnamon. This thin-barked cinnamon has a sweet, delicate and floral flavour, perfect for baking.
To add a creative twist to the tarts, we cut out stencils of the silhouette of Table Mountain and an outline of Mauritius. After scooping spoonfuls of the custard into the baked tart shells, we placed the stencils over the tarts before dusting with ground cinnamon.
We love to eat milk tart alongside a hot cup of tea or a dessert!
QUESTIONS YOU MANY HAVE ABOUT MILK TART
What if I can’t find Ceylon cinnamon?
Look out for ‘thin quill’ cinnamon at the store. Otherwise, not to worry, regular cinnamon will work great!
Can I make the milk tart ahead?
The tart shells can be made a couple of days ahead and they keep well. Make the custard on the day of serving and chill assembled tarts before serving.
Milk Tart
Ingredients
For the pastry
- 225 g flour
- 35 g castor sugar
- 135 g cold unsalted butter (cubed)
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 pinch salt
- ½-1 tbsp ice cold water
For the cinnamon custard
- 675 ml milk (3 cups)
- 2 eggs + 2 yolks
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp flour
- 8 tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Ceylon cinnamon stick (or regular)
- 2 tbsp butter
For dusting
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
For the pastry
- Place the flour, egg yolk, salt, sugar and butter in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Alternatively, rub in the butter by hand or using a pastry cutter.
- Add the water, a few drops at a time and pulse a couple of times until the mixture starts coming together. Tip the mixture onto a clean surface and bring into a dough ball.
- Slightly press the ball into a disc, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to overnight. Take the dough out of the fridge 10 mins prior to rolling.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C .
- Cut the dough into 3 pieces, if making 3 small tarts and roll each piece into a ball. Skip this step and proceed to rolling if making a large tart. Roll balls between 2 pieces of parchment into a 4 mm thick circle and gently press into tart shell case. Trim off any excess.
- Line the tarts with a a piece of crumpled baking/parchment paper. Fill with baking beans or small beans or rice.
- Bake the small tarts with the baking beans for 12 minutes (18 minutes for large tart), remove the baking paper filled with the beans and bake for another 8 minutes, or until lightly golden brown (10 minutes for large tart).
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing the tarts from the case and let cool completely before adding the filling.
For the custard filling
- Heat the milk with the cinnamon stick in a medium sized saucepan until it comes to a simmer. In a large bowl whisk the eggs, egg yolks, sugar, flour and cornstarch.
- Pour over the hot milk gradually, whisking as you pour (this step is called tempering and helps to bring up the temperature of the eggs without scrambling them).
- Pour the custard mixture with the cinnamon stick back into the pan and cook over medium heat until thickened, whisking constantly. You will know the cream is cooked when large bubbles start to rise to the surface. Take off the heat, stir in the butter and fish out the cinnamon stick.
- Immediately pour the custard into the tart shells and allow to cool.
- Dust with cinnamon and enjoy!