Christine Beyleveldt

I did promise I’d come back to my mother’s melktert recipe someday, and today is that day. The reason it took me as long as it did to post this recipe is honestly because I can never get a decent photo of my dessert before it’s gobbled up.

Before we begin, you should know that melktert is a traditional South African desert that was created by the Dutch settlers in the Cape. It consists of a sweet pastry crust, a custard filling, and a generous sprinkling of powdered cinnamon. Traditionally made with thickened whole milk, melktert isn’t very sweet. But on my last trip over to South Africa, more often than not I’d find melktert at the farmer’s market made with condensed milk instead. I don’t love it. Condensed milk is wonderful if you’re making a lemon meringue pie and want more emphasis on the richness and less on the tartness. But condensed milk in a melktert tends to turn gelatinous when it’s meant to be custard.

Remember how I said that everyone will tell you their family recipe is the best, myself included? Well, here’s the secret—near equal parts whole milk and evaporated milk. It’s got all of the sweetness of condensed milk with the runny consistency of whole milk.

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup and 2 ½ tsp flour
• 2 ½ tsp cornflour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 can (approx 350 mL) evaporated milk
• 450 mL whole milk
• powdered cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Soften the butter and mix with ¼ cup of sugar and one egg until creamy. Sift in one cup of flour and the baking powder, folding the dough until it is mixed well. Then, press the mixture into a greased baking dish so it is evenly spread. Bake the crust for minutes until it is golden. You can use baking beans to press the crust if you wish.

For the filling, heat the milk and ideal milk in a saucepan over medium head. Remember, milk burns easily, so keep an eye on it and stir constantly! Add the vanilla and two remaining eggs. When the mixture is starting to bubble, mix the remaining flour and cornflour into a small amount of cold milk and stir it to remove any lumps before adding it to the heated milk. Flour and cornflour, if added to hot milk, will remain lumpy. Continue stirring as the milk thickens, which it will do rapidly. Once you have a custard consistency, remove it from the stove and pour it into the baked pie crust. Dust it off with a sprinkling of powdered cinnamon and place it in the fridge for several hours to cool before serving.