IOL Lifestyle readers have given us their most precious possessions - their milk tart recipes. And there are also the stories that go with them...
FROM WENDY
My mother got this recipe more than 30 years ago. She was working at an eye specialist, an elderly lady always brought into the rooms these two delicious milk tarts every time she had an appointment, but would never part with the recipe. She needed an eye operation and promised one of the ladies in the office that if the operation was a success, she would give only her recipe. Well, the operation was successful, the recipe was given but she was not even down the elevators to the ground floor when the recipe hit the photo copier and all the ladies got a copy of the recipe. My mother was one of those ladies and here is the recipe - I will now share with one and all. I have made it many times and it's always a hit!
OU KAAPSE MELK TERT (makes 2 big pie dishes)
Base:
1½ cups flour
1tsp Baking powder (heaped)
2 Table spoons soft margarine
1 extra large egg
2 Tablespoons sugar
Beat egg & sugar, add marge. Mix well, add dry ingredients, add a little milk if dry.
Press into pie dish.
Filling
250 grams butter
6 eggs - separated
3 Tablespoons Corn Flour
1Litre Milk
3 Tablespoons Flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp Vanilla essence & 1 tsp Almond Ess- optional
Melt Butter in big heavy based pot.
Have the corn flour and flour measured out also the 6 egg yolks beaten as well as the 6 egg whites, stiffly beaten so you can work quickly)
Add corn flour mixed with a little water to the melted butter.
Stir well. Don't worry too much about lumps - the mixture will get smooth later as you mix.
Add flour - cook till thick and gooey.
Add 6 beaten egg YOLKS. Use a whisk to mix well
When thick - Remove from the stove, add milk, Return to the stove and bring to the boil. Stir/Whisk until thick, like custard.
Remove from the stove, add sugar and essence.
Add stiffly beaten egg WHITES - FOLD into the mixture.
Pour into prepared uncooked bases, don't fill too much, or will overflow.
Bake at 350 / 180 - moderate oven for 25 minutes
While baking, it rises and then “saks” a bit maybe makes a crack, this is normal
Sprinkle with cinnamon
GENIET!
FROM JOAN
This recipe has been in our family for years. I got it from my sister. It's easy to make... makes two tarts, freezes like a dream and is delicious. Her sister says: “ Believe it or not I got it from domestic science classes at Durbanville High School when I was in Std. 6. It came from the prescribed domestic science book entitled “Kook en geniet” or the english version “Cook and enjoy it”.
Joan says: “Wow.....that goes back quite a bit...... my sister is 60-something.”
MILK TART
2 Tablespoons Flour
700 ml Milk
6 Dessertspoons Sugar
½ Teaspoon Salt
6 Dessertspoons Butter/Marge
Stick Cinnamon
l large egg
Pastry
Grease 2 x pie-plates
Mix flour & sugar to a cream with a little cold milk
Scald rest of milk with Cinnamon stick.
Pour hot milk over flour mixture stirring all the time.
Return to sove and cook until thick.
Remove from heat
Take out cinnamon. Add butter
Allow mixture to cool a little and add egg.
Pour into pastry-lined pie-plates
Sprinkle before baking with ground cinnamon
Bake 400 F /200 C Degrees 2nd shelf from bottom of oven for 20minutes.
FROM JUDY
I have had this recipe for so long I am not sure where it came from but from a friend not a book - this amount makes 2.
Milk Tart
Crust
¼ lb Butter/Marge I prefer butter makes a nicer pastry.
½ Cup Sugar - I use castor sugar
Pinch Salt
2 t Baking Powder
2 cups flour
1 egg
Cream sugar butter egg together, I do it in my mixer. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Press out in pan. And bake in oven 200º for ± 8 minutes.
Filling
4 cups milk
3 eggs
2½ Tablespoons maizena
2½ Tablespoons flour
3 desert spoons butter
¾ Cup castor sugar
Pinch Salt
Put milk on the stove and bring to the boil.
Beat rest of the ingredients together very well.
Just before milk boils add some to rest of ingredients mix well.
When milk boils add rest of mixture and stir well until it thickens (I put my mixer in and beat well gives a smoother filling).
Now pour into baked shells and sprinkle with cinnamon.
Makes 2
Note: These recipes are given exactly as supplied by the readers, in the style they were originally written. They have not been tested by IOL.