National milk tart day

Today is ‘National Milk Tart Day‘. All South Africans love milk tart.

Zululand Observer’s Dirk Minnaar, who started baking milk tarts as a boy when helping his mother, enjoyed it so much that when grew up he took the recipe from his mother and started doing his own thing.

Asked if he found it easy to make, he said there’s no real secret to it. ‘If you can read and follow instructions, then you can bake or cook.’

He cannot even begin to guess how many milk tarts he has baked in his lifetime.

Dirk was happy to share his magic recipe with us:

For the crust

1 tbsp butter

1tbsp sugar

1 egg- beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

½ cup flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

Method

Mix butter, sugar, egg and vanilla essence together.

Add flour and baking powder and mix well into soft smooth dough.

Spread mixture across a large pie dish and set aside.

For the filling

1 litre milk

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp butter

4 tbsp flour

2 large eggs- separated

2 teaspoons vanilla

Method

Heat milk in a large pot to boiling point. Rub butter into flour and sugar with fingertips until mixture resembles crumbs. Add egg yolks, vanilla and mix.

When milk boils remove from heat and stir in the butter/flour/sugar mixture and continue stirring until it thickens.

Beat egg whites and add to the filling.

Pour into prepared pie dish and bake in oven at 180°C for 15 – 20 minutes.

Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Refrigerate for at least 3 hours for it to set.

HAVE YOUR SAY

Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.

For news straight to your phone invite us:

WhatsApp – 072 069 4169

Instagram – zululand_observer