Dive into a delectable world of milk tart variations with our curated collection of recipes. From traditional classics to innovative twists, explore the creamy indulgence and rich heritage of this beloved South African dessert.
Tom’s Milk Tart with Naartjie Peel
From Recipes to Die Live For: A Tannie Maria Cookbook by Sally Andrew (COMING MAY 2024)
“It was this letter from Tom that got me looking for a murderer. It was a messy business and I am still recovering. But what I also found for Tom was the most delicious milk tart recipe ever.”
MAKES: 2 milk tarts, so give one to your neighbour
CRUST
2½ cups (330 g) cake flour
2/3 cup icing sugar
½ t salt
4 egg yolks
1 cup (250 g) cubed butter, softened
FILLING
6 thin-skinned naartjies
5 cups milk
1½ cups white sugar
4 eggs, separated, then lightly beaten separately
110 g cake flour
1 t salt
1 T custard powder
½ T cornflour
65 g butter
4 t cinnamon, nartjie or rose-petal sugar (see opposite)
1 To prepare for the filling, use a vegetable peeler to slice strips of zest from 4 of the naartjies, or you can peel the naartjies and scrape off the white pith.
2 Put the zest and 1 cup of the milk in a small pot. Heat very slowly, then let it simmer for a few minutes.
3 When it boils, turn the heat off, put the lid on and leave to infuse for at least 30 minutes while you prepare the crust.
4 To make the crust, sift the flour, icing sugar and salt together in a large bowl.
5 Add the egg yolks and then the butter, cutting it into the flour with a knife.
6 Using your fingers, knead very gently until the butter is mixed in. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave to rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.
7 Preheat your oven to 200 °C and grease two 24 cm pie dishes with butter.
8 Divide the dough in half and roll it out on a floured surface. Fit it into the wellgreased pie dishes and prick the bases with a fork.
9 Bake for 12–14 minutes until light golden.
10 While the crust rests or bakes, you can continue with the filling: Cut the zest from the other 2 naartjies and chop very finely.
11 Rub the finely chopped zest into 1 cup of the sugar.
12 Remove the strips of naartjie zest from the milk.
13 Whisk this infused milk together with the egg yolks, half of the naartjie-flavoured sugar, the flour, salt, custard powder and cornflour.
14 In a saucepan, stir the remaining 4 cups of milk, the butter and the other half of the naartjie-flavoured sugar until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
15 Add the naartjie-flavoured egg mixture, and stir well as you bring it to the boil. Use a flat spatula to stop it sticking to the bottom of the pan.
16 Remove from the heat and cool slightly.
17 Use an electric mixer to beat together the egg whites and the final ½ cup of (unflavoured) sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold into the naartjie mixture.
18 Divide this filling between the two crusts.
19 Bake in a 180 °C oven for 20–25 minutes, until the custard sets but before the tops become brown.
20 Stand back and clap for yourself.
21 Before serving, sprinkle 2 t flavoured sugar onto each milk tart. To make a change from cinnamon sugar, use naartjie or rosepetal sugar. You may be able to buy these, or you can make your own (see opposite).
NOTES
You can replace the fresh zest with dried peel. Powder the dried peel in a blender, and use ¼ cup in the milk infusion (discarding what sinks to the bottom of the pot) and ¼ cup in the sugar.
Rubbing the finely grated zest of one orange into the sugar is another delicious option.
You may prefer to eat your milk tart warm, but it does set better when it has cooled completely.
NAARTJIE SUGAR (makes about 100 ml)
1 Slice 3 naartjies with peel. Dry the naartjie slices slowly, so they don’t lose colour or flavour. Use a warming drawer or very low oven (perhaps at the end of your rusk-making), or just the dry Karoo air. Don’t leave too long in direct sunlight or the colour may fade.
2 Crush or powder the dried naartjie, using a pestle and mortar or a blender.
3 Mix 5 t of this colourful powder with 5 T white sugar, by hand. (The ratio of powder to sugar is about 1:3.)
4 Spread out the sugar on a baking tray and spray very lightly with spring water. Mix by hand, to make the colour bleed, then spread out again.
5 Leave to dry overnight, then store in 2 × 50 ml bottles.
ROSE-PETAL SUGAR (makes about 100 ml)
Instead of naartjie slices, dry a handful of organic rose petals, picked with love, and follow the above recipe.
NOTES
1 This recipe is for 100 ml, but it would be better to increase the quantities because of all the time and work involved.
1 You may be able to buy dried naartjie slices or dried (edible) petals, which will make the job quicker.
Milk Tart
From Dinner at Matloha’s by Liziwe Matloha
MAKES: 1 tart
4 Tbsp (60 g) butter
½ cup (125 ml) sugar
2 cups (2 x 250 ml) cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
1 litre full-cream milk
2-3 cinnamon sticks
3 eggs
1 cup (250 ml) sugar
2 ½ Tbsp cake flour
2 ½ tsp Maizena (cornflour)
Salt to taste
4 Tbsp (60 g) butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
Ground cinnamon, for dusting
1. To make the base, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and beat until a stiff dough forms. Press the dough into a round pie dish (+- 20 cm). bake in a pre-heated oven at 160’C until golden brown. Set aside to cool.
2. To make the filling, place the milk in a saucepan. Add the cinnamon sticks and heat to boiling point.
3. In a bowl, beat the eggs well. Add the sugar, flour, Maizena and a pinch of salt and beat until combined.
4. Pour the egg and flour mixture into the warmed milk. Stir through and cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens.
5. Add the butter and vanilla extract and mix through.
6. Pour the filling into the cooled base. Dust with ground cinnamon. Place in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or overnight, before serving.
No-Churn Milk Tart Ice Cream
From Feed my Tribe by Mmule Setati
MAKES: ±1 litre
2 cups fresh cream, well chilled
1 × 385g can condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
In a large bowl, whip the cream until it forms soft peaks. Add the condensed milk and fold it in
using a spatula, until well combined.
Stir in the remaining ingredients. Scoop the ice cream mixture into a square tin or dish, seal and
freeze for 12 hours.
Milk Tart Spring Rolls
From Simply Seven Colours by Zola Nene
MAKES: 8–12
2 cups milk
2 egg yolks
½ cup castor sugar
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp cornflour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
12 spring roll wrappers
1 egg white, lightly beaten
Oil, for frying
FOR COATING
1/4 cup castor sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1. Heat the milk to scalding point (just before it starts to boil).
2. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, castor sugar, flour and cornflour. Pour the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking continuously. Return the mixture to the pot and cook on medium heat until thickened, stirring continuously.
3. Stir in the vanilla extract and cinnamon. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, cover with cling wrap and leave to cool completely.
4. Once the mixture has cooled, spoon it onto the spring roll wrappers and roll them into neat cigars. Brush the edges with egg white to seal.
5. Deep-fry in oil (5 cm is enough) until golden and crisp. Drain them of excess oil on paper towel, then toss in a mixture of castor sugar and cinnamon to coat. Serve immediately.
Melkkos
Uit Onthoukos deur Chef Tiaan Langenegger
“Ons het dikwels op Sondae melkkos in my ouerhuis geëet. Dit is amper so ’n bietjie soos melktert, maar Sondag-melktert …”
GENOEG VIR 4-6
1 e (15 ml) kaneel
1/2 k (100 g) suiker
2 e (30 g) botter
350 ml (180 g) koekmeel
knippie sout
6 k (1 1/2 liter) melk
Meng die kaneel en die suiker saam in ’n bakkie en plaas eenkant vir opdiening. Sny die botter in klein blokkies. Voeg dit by die meel en die sout in ’n mengbak en vryf dit in tot dit soos broodkrummels lyk.
Verhit die melk in ’n kastrol oor matige hitte tot net voor kookpunt en voeg bietjie vir bietjie van die meelmengsel by terwyl jy met ’n ballonklitser roer tot die melk ’n bietjie dikker word. Laat kook vir 5–10 minute oor matige hitte tot gaar.
Laat rus vir sowat 5 minute, strooi baie van die kaneelsuiker oor en sit dadelik voor. Jy kan selfs ’n klontjie botter bo-op sit sodat dit in die kos insmelt.
WENK
As jy van stukkies in die melkkos hou (meer soos melksnysels), kan jy met ’n lepel in plaas van ’n ballonklitser roer.
Melktert
Uit Lekker en Goed deur Carmen Niehaus
“Van melktert kan ek net nie genoeg kry nie. Pleks van outentieke skilferkors gebruik ek fillodeeg en die vulsel is ook glad nie te soet nie. Ek hou veral van die effense amandelgeursel wat die vulsel het.”
MAAK: 1 middelslag-melktert
BEREIDING: 25 min
BAKTYD: 25 min
KORS
5 velle fillodeeg
Gesmelte botter of kossproei
VULSEL
625 ml (2½ k) melk
2 kaneelstokkies of 4 sakkies-chai-rooibostee
1,25 ml (¼ t) amandelgeursel
4 eiers, geskei
100–125 ml bruinsuiker
30 ml (2 e) koekmeel
30 ml (2 e) mielieblom
15 ml (1 e) vlapoeier
Knippie sout
20 ml (4 t) botter (opsioneel)
AFRONDING
Amandelvlokkies, gerooster
Versiersuiker en kaneel
1 Voorverhit die oond tot 180 °C. Spuit ’n losboomtert- of koekpan goed met kossproei.
2 KORS Smeer elk van die fillodeegvelle met botter of spuit met kossproei en rangskik hulle bo-op mekaar in die tert- of koekpan. Frummel die oorhangkante terug en druk vas langs die rand van die pan om ’n tipe tertrand te vorm. Verf weer liggies met botter of spuit met kossproei. Bak sowat 15 minute of tot die deeg net gaar is, maar nog nie bruin nie.
3 VULSEL Verhit die melk met kaneelstokkies of andersins die -chai-rooibostee in ’n glasbak in die mikrogolf tot lekker warm, maar moet dit nie laat kook nie. Voeg die amandelgeursel by en laat effe afkoel. Verwyder die kaneelstok en goed uitgedrukte teesakkies indien gebruik.
4 Klits die eiergele, suiker, koekmeel, mielieblom, vlapoeier en knippie sout saam in ’n groot mengbak tot goed gemeng en glad.
5 Voeg ’n klein bietjie van die verhitte melk hierby en meng goed. Giet die eiermengsel by die melkmengsel, roer goed en giet in ’n kastrol. Voeg die botter by indien gebruik. Verhit terwyl jy roer tot die mengsel kook en verdik. Klits die eierwitte styf en vou in.
6 Giet die mengsel in die tertkors en bak 25 minute of tot die vlavulsel gaar en stewig is.(bedek die tertkorswand met tinfoelie as dit lyk of dit te donker word).
7 AFRONDING Sprinkel amandelvlokkies oor en bestuif met ’n bietjie versiersuiker en kaneel. Sit louwarm voor.
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