Celebrating the World Cup on African soil with South African Milk Tart

Who would have thought that one day Africa was going to host the world cup and what makes it more special is that it is being held in the country that adopted me. The atmosphere and the vibe is amazing. We went to the kick off concert and what a blast! It was a seven hour long concert with South African and international artists(pics to follow). So to celebrate the World Cup being held on African soil, I decided to make something South African..... “a milk tart”.

Meaning "milk tart" in Afrikaans, melktert is a South African dessert. It is a sweet pastry crust containing a creamy filling made from milk, flour, sugar and eggs. The ratio of milk to egg is higher than in a traditional European custard tart or Chinese egg tart, resulting in a lighter texture and a stronger milk flavour. Some 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 before serving. Cinnamon is often sprinkled over its surface. Melkterts are described as a dessert that shows distinctive Dutch traits.

MAKING THE TART CRUST

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 egg
½ cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
125g butter
pinch of salt

Method – pastry:

1. Cream butter and sugar well together and add the egg, before beating well.
2. Add all other ingredients – making a stiff dough.
3. Press into one or two round cake tins/pie dishes and bake at 180°C until light brown.

Ingredients – filling:

4 ½ cups milk
2 ½ tbsp cornflour
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
pinch of salt
2 ½ tbsp flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
a big spoon of butter

Method – filling:

1. Bring milk to the boil.
2. Beat eggs well and add sugar, flour, cornflour and salt.
3. Mix well.
4. Pour boiling milk into the mixture and stir well.
5. Return to stove and stir well until mixture thickens.
6. Add butter and vanilla essence and pour into cooked shell.
7. To decorate, sprinkle with cinnamon.

I unfortunately forgot to add the baking powder to the crust and the butter for the filling but nevertheless, it tasted great.  I got the recipe from this website.

So here’s to the World Cup being celebrated in South Africa, makes me proud to be an African.