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Giving milk tart another chance after a yucky first encounter, I made milk tart muffins

The batter (left) and stirring the custard filling. (Photo: Ray Mahlaka)

27 Sep 2024

Years ago, an awful store-made milk tart ruined the beloved South African treat for me. Made right, this tart can be creamy and milky, and a delicious way to end off your Heritage Month braai.

I have a love-hate relationship with milk tart or, as the Afrikaans call it, melktert. The love part is theoretical. It has more to do with the imagery of something creamy, rich and milky that is conjured up in the mind when someone mentions milk tart.

And the hate part is more practical. Aeons ago, I ate a milk tart for the first time and it was horrible, which prompted me to write off the traditional South African sweet tart completely.

The milk tart I tasted was store-made. I remember the pastry base being soggy, dense and with a raw texture as it was not thoroughly baked. And the creamy milk-based custard that fills the pasty was equally a mess. The custard clearly curdled. The not-be-mentioned retailer might as well have sold scrambled eggs in a soggy pastry, passing it off as milk tart.

Since this offending experience, I avoided milk tart like the plague. If it were on the menu at a restaurant, I’d look past it. If homemade at a braai, I’d gladly skip dessert. And if someone mentioned it, my stomach would turn, instantly being transported to my first and horrendous exposure to milk tart.

However, I recently thought about milk tart when I was bereft of ideas for my Daily Maverick series of making South African dishes for Heritage Day and September. I ignored the thought and researched more dishes.

Days later, while grocery shopping at a retailer with a black-and-white logo, I was confronted by a ready-made milk tart on the shelves. The pastry bottom looked crispy golden, without any trapped moisture to make it soggy. The custard topping looked creamy and wobbly when I gently moved the tart packaging from the shelf. The smell of nutmeg and cinnamon dusted on top of the custard was pungent, poking through the plastic packaging.

I challenged myself to make milk tart from scratch and a better version than the retailer that prides itself on “the difference”. (By now, you should have an inkling of the retailer I’m referring to). (I think it begins with a “W” — Food Ed)

Ray fooling around with his milk tarts and looking pretty chuffed with himself, as he should be. (Photo: Ray Mahlaka)

A surprising discovery when I made milk tart is that many ingredients are already in your pantry, with no extra shopping needed. The main ones are milk, butter, eggs, sugar, flour and cornstarch/corn flour, and others.

Pastries make me nervous. They are difficult to perfect and require precise measurements or everything can go awry. If you find making a pastry for a milk tart bottom daunting or are pressed for time, you can use store-bought pastry. I believe cooking and baking are about tweaking a recipe to make it your own and cutting corners when there are difficulties.

The only problem I encountered when preparing the pastry was that my long acrylic nails got in the way again. If you are a loyal reader of my columns, you will remember that the same nails made it impossible to braid pastry when I made koeksisters.

Read more: A mission to ensure that my koeksisters were not k*ksisters

My nails made it difficult to press the dough into a muffin tray, poking holes instead of laying smoothly. I am glad to report that I’ve removed the acrylic nails after three long weeks. Baking and cooking should now be easier.

Nevertheless, I made a milk tart that challenged all my perceptions of the beloved South African dish. And shame on me for writing it off after one bad grocery store experience.

Ray’s milk tart muffins

The milk tarts, showing the layer of set custard inside. (Photo: Ray Mahlaka)

(Yields six to eight milk tart-like muffins)

Ingredients

½ cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 pinch salt

4 cups milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp butter or margarine

2 ½ Tbsp all-purpose flour

2 ½ Tbsp cornstarch

½ cup white sugar

2 eggs, beaten

½ tsp ground cinnamon

Method

The batter (left) and stirring the custard filling. (Photo: Ray Mahlaka)

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Butter or spray a six-cup muffin pan or pie pan. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together ½ cup of softened butter or margarine, 1 cup of white sugar, and 1 egg. Beat the ingredients until the mixture is smooth. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix 2 cups of plain flour, baking powder and salt. Stir this into the smooth mixture that was set aside. All ingredients should be mixed to form a dough. Freeze this dough for 30 minutes. This prevents it from rising too much and baking without weighing it down.

Press the dough into the buttered or sprayed muffin pan or pie pan. With a fork, poke holes into the pressed dough. Then bake in a preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

In a pan, combine four cups of milk, vanilla extract and 1 Tbsp butter or margarine. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then remove from the stove.

In a separate bowl, mix 2 ½ Tbsp of all-purpose flour, 2 ½ Tbsp cornstarch, and ½ cup white sugar. Add 2 beaten eggs to the flour and sugar mixture, and whisk until smooth.

Slowly add this mixture into the milk and butter pan mixture removed from the stove. Return the pan to heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. After three to five minutes, this mixture would have thickened. Half fill each pastry shell. Sprinkle with cinnamon. DM

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