April 27th marks a very special day in South Africa, Freedom Day, commemorating the first post-apartheid elections on that day in 1994. We’re very proud to feature South African recipes for this month on Your Living City by our very own South African in Sweden, Kristen Smart! This week she shares her recipe for Melktert.
Want more fantastic recipes? Check out our Expat Cookbook!
We South Africans are thankful to the Dutch for a great many things: their contribution to the production of thick-skinned, follically-endowed rugby players, insistence on splitting the bill and, most importantly, milk tart.
Milk tart (or “melktert” in Afrikaans) is one of South Africa’s most popular Sunday after-church tea accompaniments. Similar to a custard tart, the ratio of milk to egg is higher which gives it a lighter texture and a more milky flavour.
This calcium-enriched treat almost inevitably invokes memories of lazy summer afternoons spent half-listening to mothers and aunts gossiping in the kitchen while the men of the household snoozed in front of the cricket.
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons Flour
700 ml Milk
6 Dessertspoons Sugar
½ Teaspoon Salt
6 Dessertspoons Butter/Margarine
Stick Cinnamon
l large egg
Puff pastry
Directions
- Grease 2 x 9” pie-plates
- Mix flour & sugar into a cream, using a little cold milk
- Pop the cinnamon stick into a pan with the rest of the milk and heat to just boiling point.
- Pour milky cinnamon mixture over flour mixture, stirring constantly
- Return to stove and cook until thickened to a custard consistency (coats the back of a spoon), then remove from heat
- Remove cinnamon and add butter
- Allow mixture to cool a little and mix in egg
- Pour into pastry-lined pie-plates
- Sprinkle before baking with ground cinnamon
- Bake at 200 C degrees on the second lowest shelf for 20 minutes.
- Enjoy with a cup of Rooibos tea and honey!
