Delicious Milk tart
Ingredients for biscuit base
150 grams of Butter room temperature
1 cup of caster sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla essence
A pinch of salt
2 &1/2 cups of cake flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 tablespoon of cooking oil
1 egg
Ingredients for Filling
800 ml of milk
1 extra 1/2 a cup of milk
8 large eggs
3 stick cinnamon
5 cardamon pods
1 cup of caster sugar
A pinch of salt
2 tablespoons of vanilla essence
3 heaped tablespoons of instant custard powder
1/4 a teaspoon of fine cinnamon to sift over milk tart when its done baking .
METHOD FOR BISCUIT BASE
First grease your baking pan with a little butter and put one side -
Next take your butter and beat for a minute , add sugar and beat with electric mixer or hand whisk till creamy , next add your oil and vanilla essence and mix further for 2 minutes , next add your egg and mix for a minute - next add your dry ingredients and mix by hand till a dough is formed , at this stage if the dough is a bit sticky , just add 2-3 tablespoons of cake flour and work it in lightly - never over work dough as this will make it heavy and tough . Now place your biscuit base covered with cling wrap in the fridge for 5-8 minutes -
Next take out your dough and roll out on a floured surface to the size of your baking pan - use your rolling pin to transfer dough to your baking pan - press the biscuit dough neatly in pan ensuring there are no holes and it's filled up by the sides of the pan as well . Now place in fridge till ready to fill with the custard filling . This part of chilling the dough is very important and ensure your base has no holes and its not too thin or it will rise above the filling when baking .
METHOD FOR FILLING
First switch on your oven to 200 degC to preheat oven .
Next -
Pour your milk in a pot ,add cinnamon and cardamon and warm on medium temperature on your stove till hot , meanwhile
Take your 1/2 a cup of milk and add your custard powder and vanilla essence and mix till well combined. And add this to your hot milk and stir and switch off the heat. Continue to stir for a minute or so . Leave one side .
Next -
In a large bowl add your eggs and sugar and whisk , take half a cup of the hot milk and whisk it into the egg mixture , continue adding half a cup of hot milk at a time whisking all the time until all the milk has been added . Do not add all the hot milk at once as this will cook the eggs instantly -
give one last whisk to ensure all ingredients are well combined .
Next take out your biscuit base from the fridge - gently pour in your filling ( it will be quite runny ) and place in preheated oven on your bottom rack and bake for 45-50 minutes , the first 30 minutes bake using only bottom heat of oven - when you see bubbles appear you know that it's almost done. At this stage touch the filling with your finger to check if its almost set .
Take out of oven and sift over the fine cinnamon , allow to set further as it cools off .
It is best to serve milk tart a few hours after it's been baked or the next day , then your milk tart will be completely set and the biscuit base will be so soft and melt in your mouth .
My tips - The Filling of a Milk tart is actually a custard - the Flour , Custard powder and Cornflour are all ways to help the the custard thicken and set , always use a thick based baking pan or Pyrex baking tray for baking milktarts .
