Saturday, April 10, 2010

Melktert (South African Custard Tart)

I love to cook, but I’m definitely not a baker. I find baking a very messy and sticky activity and I’m not really into cakes/tarts. But this is actually a very nice one! So… you will probably end up with a fairly messy kitchen after you finished making this delicious South African custard tart (so if you live in SA try to make it while your domestic worker is around, otherwise,... uhm, do your own dishes), but it is worth it. If you have a really sweet tooth, you can add some more sugar to the filling (some recipes call for 200 g of sugar), but I like it best when it’s not so sweet.


Serves 12
Base:
- 125 g butter
- 100 g sugar
- 1 egg
- 250 g cake flour
- 5 g baking powder
- pinch of salt

Filling:
 - 1 l milk
- 30 g butter
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 40 g cake flour
- 40 g corn flour
- pinch of salt
- 125 ml milk
- 100 g sugar
- 3 eggs
- 5 ml vanilla extract
- cinnamon for dusting

Base:
Preheat oven to 200 °C. Line the bottom of a tart mould with baking paper (or butter) and coat the sides with some butter.

Mix butter and sugar until creamy.
Blend in the egg and the rest of the base ingredients. Mix until you get a firm dough. Wrap in cling film and leave it to rest in the fridge for about half an hour.
Roll out the pastry on a lightly-floured surface and transfer gently to the tart mould. Prick all over with a fork. Transfer to oven and bake for about 15 minutes until crisp and golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Filling:
In a pan, bring milk with butter and cinnamon stick over medium heat to a boil.
In the meantime, mix cake flour, corn flower salt and extra milk until smooth.
Ladle some of the hot milk mixture into the flour mixture, stir well and poor it back in the pan, while whisking. Let it come to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes.
Mix sugar and eggs and ladle some of the hot milk mixture into it, stir well poor back into the pan. Let it come to a boil while whisking. Add vanilla extract and stir. Let it cool down, while stirring once or twice.
Poor the filling into the base and refrigerate. Dust with cinnamon powder and serve.

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