South African melktert (milk tart)...

by JEANNE

The traditional flavouring is cinnamon, but I figured if we were infusing the milk, we might as well make things a bit more interesting and add some cardamom.

MELKTERT / MILK TART Recipe: (serves 8)
Ingredients:

• about 200g of ready rolled puff pastry
• 1.5 cups milk
• 1 tsp butter
• a pinch of salt
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 green cardamom pod
• 1 tsp custard powder
• 1.5 tsp cournflour (cornstarch)
• 1.5 tsp cake flour
• 1 Tbsp cold milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1/4 tsp almond essence (optional)
• sugar mixed with a little ground cinnamon

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Line a 20cm diameter fluted pie dish with the puff pastry, leaving the edges raggedy and hanging over the edge of the dish.
2. Bring the milk to a slow boil in a medium saucepan, then add the butter, salt, cinnamon stick and cardamom pod.
3. Combine the custard powder, cornflour and cake flour. Add the cold milk and make a paste. Stir a little of the hot milk into the paste to thin it, then stir the custard paste into the hot milk in the saucepan. Make sure there are no lumps in the paste – and don't panic too much if there are some lumps in the saucepan once you've added the custard – just make sure you stir vigorously and continuously to get them to dissolve. Add 2 Tbsp of the sugar and stir continuously. (I cheated a little and whisked the custard with a wire whisk to keep it smooth!) When the custard thickens, remove it from the heat and discard the cinnamon and cardamom.
4. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then beat in the remaining sugar gradually and set aside. Beat the yolks slightly and then add about 2 Tbsp of the warm custard mix to the yolks and mix well.
5. Stir the yolk mix into the custard saucepan and add the almond essence (if using). Gently fold in the egg whites.
6. Pour into the prepared pie dish, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake at 200C for 10 minutes. Then turn the heat down to 175C and bake for a further 10-15 mins, until puffed up and golden.
7. Allow to cool on a wire rack and serve in slices.

NOTES: This recipe was adapted from a couple I found on RecipZaar. I liked the idea of whipped egg whites as I figured there's no way could it be stodgy with all that egg white in it – and I was right. It's not a difficult recipe at all, but takes a bit of time as each constituent part needs to be worked on – and it does dirty a lot of bowls/pots! The addition of the cardamom was an inspiration, even if I say so myself, and I will definitely be repeating this as the taste is marvellous. I also loved the taste of the custard before I added the eggs. The flavour of the spices came through very strongly, and I would happily make flavoured custard like this to have with fruit desserts in future. 

The finished product not only looked lovely and puffed up in the oven like a soufflé but retained that lovely eggy wobbliness even after it had sunk down to normal proportions. It is light and very moreish and deliciously spiced. Definitely a keeper!
- See more at: http://www.cooksister.com/2010/07/south-african-melktert-milk-tart-revisited.html#sthash.29K67CLd.dpuf