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Easy South African Milk Tart

One of our favorite desserts is the classic South African Milk Tart. If you like creamy vanilla custard and lots of cinnamon, you’ll love this. There are as many recipes for milk tart as probably the American apple pie – and everyone has their personal favorite passed down from Ouma (grandma). It is traditionally made with a pastry crust and custard filling. Some recipes say to bake the crust blind and then add the cooked custard. Some say to bake it all at once. Some use biscuits as a crust. Some use crumbs. Some don’t have a crust at all.

My favorite recipe is a quicker version that uses tennis biscuits as a crust. Tennis biscuits are a coconut shortbread type of cookie.  It keeps the kitchen cool since you don’t have to turn the oven on for a pastry crust – something that is very important when it’s 100*f in the shade! Although, nothings beats the homemade pastry crust version. Jackie Wyatt first introduced us to this dessert – and the tennis biscuit variety. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. My family loves it so much that I brought Tennis biscuits back from South Africa with us – just for this.

Easy South African Milk Tart


Filling:
4 cups Whole Milk
1 cup Sugar
2 Large Eggs
2 Tbsp Butter
2 Tbsp + 2 tsp flour
2 Tbsp + 2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Ground Cinnamon for sprinkling

Crust:
Line a 13×9 with Tennis biscuits (Nilla wafers or similar) in a single layer, breaking to fit. Can also be made in pie plates.

Method:
· Bring milk and butter to the boil
· Mix rest of ingredients to a smooth paste
· Once milk comes to the boil, remove from heat and slowly pour in other ingredients, whisking slowly to
avoid lumps
· Return to heat and mix until thick
· Pour onto crust and sprinkle with cinnamon
· Chill for at least 4 hours or overnight; will firm up.
· Cut and serve

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Comments 3

  1. If you have trouble with the custard, it sometimes works better for me to combine the milk, butter and paste mixture and cook it all at once on medium heat till thick and bubbly; stirring constantly. Graham Crackers work well.

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