A taste of heritage

Along with the boerewors and pap and “sous”, the milk tart is another unique and classic South African dish.

The dessert has found its way to many braai tables, church bazaars and at the local butcher, and on February 27, the nation celebrates National Milk Tart Day.

But where does the “melktert” come from?

The melktert stems from the Dutch settlers in the Cape in the 1600s. It is a dessert consisting of a sweet pastry crust containing a creamy filling made from milk, flour, sugar and eggs. Certain recipes require the custard to be baked in the crust, and others call for the custard to be prepared in advance, and then placed in the crust and chilled before serving. Cinnamon is often sprinkled over its surface.

The large proportion of milk in the custard filling is evidence that melktert was introduced to us by the Dutch dairy farmers who settled the Cape of Good Hope in the middle of the century.

There have been many variations of the milk tart over the years, such as the peanut brittle milk tart, condensed milk tart, chocolate milk tart and the crustless milk tart.

In celebration of this proudly South African delicacy, here is a recipe of the old-fashioned milk tart:

Ingredients

For the pastry:

• 2 tablespoons butter, not margarine

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1 egg

• 3/4 cup of self raising flour

• pinch of salt

For the filling:

• 2 cups of milk

• 2 eggs, seperated

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/4 cup cake flour

• pinch of salt

• 2 tablespoons butter

• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

• Ground cinnamon

Method

Preheat oven to 180 deg celcius. Blitz all the ingredients together in a food processor or with an electric beater until it all clumps together to form a dough. Press into a lightly greased 24cm tart dish. Chill in the fridge while preparing the filling.

Heat the milk in a medium pot(do not boil). Beat the yolks and sugar until creamy and light then add the flours and salt – the mixture will be quite thick. Add some warm milk to the egg mixture and then return all of it to the pot. Bring to the boil and whisk constantly until thickened. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter and vanilla. Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until soft peaks form and fold into the custard. Pour into the chilled pastry case and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake for about 30 minutes.

Share your favourite milk tart recipe (together with a mouth-watering pic) on our Facebook page or on Twitter. Your recipe will then be published on our website.