Recipe Review: Melktert, a South African Custard Pie

Hou jy van melktert?

It's been a while since I made a melktert, or milk tart in English, and since then I've eaten a few and seen a few more made on YouTube. I thought a little review was in order!

Normally, milk tart is a simple conflour-thicken vanilla custard in a tart shell, either crushed-biscuit base (most common among home cooks), shortcrust pastry (which I rarely see) or—so I've read online—puff pastry (which is apparently the "traditional" way, but I've personally never ever seen it), sprinkled with ground cinnamon. I've made a few changes to the usual way of making if, which I'll explain in this blog.

But first things first, ignore the wrinkly top: it's a by product of a new technique of making the custard lighter by mixing in beaten egg white. The tops only go wrinkly if you undercook them and take them out of the oven too soon, so learn from my mistake!

Despite that little gaffe, mixing whipped egg white into the custard was the first main change I made. I read other recipes online which all did the same thing, claiming it to be the traditional way. It makes the custard feel lighter on the palate, and slightly more moussey in texture.

The second main change I made was to the biscuit base: normal biscuit bases are 1 part butter to 2 parts biscuit, but I halved the amount of butter. It made for a lighter, crumblier base. I also used half digestives and half Speculaas biscuits, to keep the Dutch theme going.

INGREDIMENTS

For 6 mini tarts, or one 9 inch tart

• 8 ounces (225 grammes) biscuits, either digestives, gingernuts, or Speculaas, or a mixture
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter, at room temperature
• 1 UK pint (2½ US cups, 570 millilitres) full fat milk
• 2 eggs, separated
• 4 tablespoons (¼ cup) cornflour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) good quality vanilla essence
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) lemon zest
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter
• Ground cinnamon, for decorating

METHOD

• Crush the biscuits, either using a food processor or by rolling over the biscuits in a plastic bag. In a mixing bowl, mix the biscuits with the room temperature butter with your hands to make a crumbly mixture.
• Use this mixture to line 6 mini tart tins, about 4 inches (10 centimetres) wide, or one 9 inch (22 centimetre) tart tin. Pop in the fridge while you prepare the filling.
• Separate the eggs, putting the whites into a mixing bowl and the yolks into a saucepan. Mix the yolks with half the sugar, the cornflour and the lemon zest until super smooth and lump free.
• Add in the milk gradually until completely incorporated. Once you have a nice smooth mixture, cook over medium high heat and bring to the boil, stirring all the time.
• Boil the mixture for a full minute, then remove from the heat and add the butter and vanilla essence. Set aside to cool slightly while you preheat the oven.
• Set the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.3) and allow to preheat before moving on to the meringue.
• In the mixing bowl, whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add in the remaining half of the sugar and whip into a medium-peak meringue: when you lift the beaters the peak should flop over.
• Fold the meringue into the cooked custard a third at a time, quickly but gently to prevent the egg whites cooking. You don't have to fold each third through completely before adding the next third, just enough to lighten to base.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tart shell(s) and spread out nicely, giving the tin a gentle little shake and tap.
• Bake the tart for 20 minutes on the centre shelf, or until the outside inch (2.5 centimetres) of the filling puffs up slightly and the entire surface is dry to the touch.
• Take the tart out of the oven and cool completely on a wire rack in the tin, before chilling in the fridge for 4 hours before serving.
• Before serving, sprinkle the surface with a good layer of ground cinnamon.

Kitchen Experiment: Baked Milk Tart

Wil jy graag melk tert? Here is my take on the traditional South African treat, Milk Tart!

I have done a milk tart on this blog before, but not like this. Usually, milk tart is made with a cornflour thickened custard, somewhat like a crème pâtissière, but this time I thought I'd do a little experiment...

I've been interested in trying a baked custard for quite some time, and I thought this would be a good excuse. I've been doing a lot of research on baked custard and my findings have shown that generally for one UK pint (580 millilitres) of milk, you add four eggs, and four ounces (115 grammes) of sugar. My first attempt obeyed this ratio, scaling down to three-quarters of the quantity.

The first one I did had a little too much of an eggy taste for my liking, and had too firm a texture. Once I looked up why this may be, I found that egg white adds egginess and rubberiness. As such, I adjusted the ratio of egg white to egg yolk, by removing two of the egg whites from the eggs to make it smoother. It worked quite well!

I also learnt from reading a lot of South African blogs that milk tart should be made with puff pastry. I'll give that a try next time and see what it's like. This tart, however, is made with shortcrust pastry.

INGREDIMENTS
For one 9 inch (22 centimetre) tart

• One blind-baked 9 inch (22 centimetre) deep tart crust, still in its tin
• 5 UK fluid ounces (140 millilitres) whipping cream
• 10 UK fluid ounces (285 millilitres) whole milk
• 2 whole medium egg
• 1 medium egg yolk
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 vanilla pod, or 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Ground cinnamon

METHOD

• On a cutting board, slice the vanilla pod lengthwise, leaving a little at the top to hold the two sides together. Using the back of the knife, scrape the seeds out of both sides of the pod.
• Put the vanilla seeds, empty vanilla pod, cream, and milk into a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until it it begins to simmer. Remove from the heat. If you don't have a vanilla pod, just mix in the vanilla essence after cooking.
• Separate one of the whole eggs, putting the yolk into a medium mixing bowl, and keeping the white aside for later. To this egg yolk, add in the other whole egg, and the egg yolk, and sugar. Whisk together well. 
• Constantly whisking, very slowly pour in the hot cream until fully whisked. Make sure to add it slowly so the eggs don't cook.
• Pour the custard through a sieve into a jug with a spout, and then throw away whatever is left behind in the sieve.
• Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2). Whisk the leftover egg white until broken up, then brush it onto the inside of the tart crust. Place the tart tin on a flat sheet, and gently heat the blind-baked crust in the oven for about 5 minutes on the centre shelf.
• Once the egg white is set, pull the oven shelf out slightly to get better access to the tart crust. Slowly pour the custard into the crust, then sprinkle ground cinnamon all over the surface.
• Bake in the oven for 45 to 50 minutes, until the custard is set on the surface,but still jiggly underneath.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before chilling for at least an hour before serving.

THIS TIME IN 2016: Confirmation Day! (I'm Getting Good at Jam and Cream Gâteaux)

THIS TIME IN 2013: Fool-Proof Meringue (Unless You're a Really Foolish Fool)

No blogs on this day in 2015 nor 2014

Something Different: Koeksisters (Wheat- and Dairy Free)

This time, I thought I'd try something completely different and unusual. My culinary explorations lead me to South Africa, where they make these delicious doughnut like confections soaked in syrup: Koeksisters.

For some reason, my family has had a lot of interaction with South African people: both my brothers have dated South African women, and I have had a few South African friends over the course of my school and college life. I think Ireland had some sort of connexion to the country, through hiring people to work for Intel in Leixlip, but I don't exactly know the details. Either way, it's a big migrant group here in Ireland.

Recently, I invited a friend around for dinner (who helped me out with the videos) and she told me she hadn't had a doughnut in years since going off dairy and wheat, so I promised her that I'd make some for her. I made the dough and thought, while I have it, I'll do a little experiment: another friend reminded me of the existence of koeksisters, which are braided doughnuts (sometimes flavoured with nutmeg and cardamom) that are deep fried and soaked in a simple syrup flavoured with cinnamon, ginger, and more cardamom.

The process was very simple: I used my new doughnuts recipe, adding ¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg and the crushed seeds of 2 cardamom pods to the dry ingredients, and replacing the butter with block margarine. I then split the dough into eight equal pieces and then began the rolling and braiding process.

1. Take each eighth of the dough and roll it into a ball.
2. Use a rolling pin to flatten each ball out into a long oval.
3. Make a mark a little bit down from the top end of the oval, and cut the oval into three legs up to the mark.
4. Pinch each of the three legs into ropes.
5. Braid the legs together.
6. Pinch the loose ends together and fold them behind.

 My technique improved while I has braiding: my first two were a little loose and mental, but the third and all thereafter were much better and neater. My advice is don't be afraid to pull on the legs a bit to keep them tight.

I then fried them like normal doughnuts for about 6 minutes per batch, flipping each side twice to make sure even cooking. If you leave them too long on one side, it actually causes the braids to unravel a little, so turn a few times during the cooking process to make sure each side rises slowly.

Once each batch cooks, take each cake out of the oil and wrap in a piece of kitchen roll and leave on a wire rack to drain and cool slightly. Once all eight are cooked, allow them to cool enough to handle, then make the syrup.

In a saucepan, heat together 6 ounces (170 grammes) of caster sugar with 6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) of water, along with some spices: 1 cinnamon stick (or a sprinkle of ground cinnamon), 2 whole cloves, the crushed seeds of 4 green cardamom pods, and a teaspoon of vanilla essence. Bring to the boil and cook until the mixture thickens and becomes syrupy like warm honey.

Lay the koeksisters in a dish and pour the syrup out of them, liberally dousing each one. Allow to soak for a while, then flip them over to allow the other side to soak.

These are very heavy going, and very similar to gulab jamun, which I made for one of our Indian themed tea parties. These are best kept in an airtight container and eaten within 3 days.

THIS TIME IN 2014: Honey and Cinnamon Popcorn (Gluten Free)
THIS TIME IN 2013: Minty Millionaire's Shortbread (Wheat Free)

Mini Chocolate "Melkterts" (Wheat Free)

Three updates this week! How I spoil you all.

I don't know what it is with my brothers and I, but there seems to be a family weakness for things South African: they each at a time were going out with a South African, I have a lot of friends who are South African, and theirs is an accent I could listen to all day. Their cuisine is a delightfully bizarre blend of all things European with the local twist applied, through spices and local vegetables.

My next oldest brother was going out with a woman who was a friend of mine in college, and she was originally from Cape Town. She really missed her home land, and would often recreate things she and her family would eat back home when she came around for dinner. Oxtail was her real favourite, spiced to Hell with dried bird's eye chillies, but another was Melktert, or "Milk Tart" as she called it.


Melktert is basically a pastry or biscuit-crumb base filled with a set vanilla scented custard and dusted liberally with ground cinnamon. It is absolutely amazing by itself, but what in this world cannot be improved with chocolate?

I used the same recipe for the bases as I used in my lemon meringue tarts recipe, but instead I made smaller cases using a muffin tin and filled them with a simple set custard, flavoured with cocoa powder.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten (unless you use gluten-free oats)
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Eggs
☒ Dairy (check italics for alternatives)


 INGREDIMENTS

For pastry:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes)  cornflour
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter or margarine
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• Pinch of salt

For custard filling:

• 10 fluid ounces (285 millilitres) whole milk
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) cornflour
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) vanilla essence
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter or leave out

HOW-TO

• Make the pastry according to the lemon meringue tart recipe, and cook into one big case or into little cases. Allow to go cold.
• In a saucepan, mix all the custard ingredients except the butter and blend into a smooth liquid. Cook over medium heat, mixing continuously with a whisk, until thickened. It will be the consistency of fairy thick custard, almost as thick as a pudding consistency. The longer you cook it the thicker it gets so if you want a really thick custard just keep cooking.
• Remove from the heat and stir through the butter. This will make the filling richer and shinier.
• Pour into the pastry and shake to level out. Allow to cool to room temperature before chilling in the fridge.
• If you like, you can dust it with cocoa powder, icing sugar, or ground cinnamon.
  
  
  

As you can see, I cooked my custard quite thickly. I like an almost ganache like consistency with chocolate tarts, but you can set it softer, more like a chilled cheesecake, if you cook it less.