Milk Tart (Melk Tert)

This recipe was handed down to me by my mom whom had received this recipe from an Afrikaans lady from the Cape (Cape Town) with whom she nursed with. After being shown the "tricks of the making" this is a flop free recipe.

• Ready In: 4 hrs
• Serves: 6

Ingredients

• pie crust

• 2  cups flour
• 1  egg
• 1⁄4 cup sugar (original measurement altered due to the fineness of our sugar here compared to South Africa)
• 4  ounces butter (real butter)
• 1  pinch salt
• 2  teaspoons baking powder

• pie filling

• 4 1⁄2 cups homogenized milk (very important)
• 1  tablespoon butter (real butter)
• 2 1⁄2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3  eggs
• 1  teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1  pinch salt
• 1⁄4 cup sugar
• 2 1⁄2 tablespoons flour

Directions

1. Crust :
2. Cream butter and sugar and add egg. Mix in dry ingredients. Line shells evenly, fluting the edges. Bake until golden brown in colour on 350degrees F / 180degrees Celsius.
3. Filling:
4. Beat eggs, sugar, flour, maizena (cornstarch), salt until smooth. Set to the side.
5. In a non stick pot, bring the milk to an almost boil(until you see tiny bubbles on the side of the pot (inside). Remove from stove, but don't turn off stove, add egg mixture, stirring in a gentle figure of 8 - put back onto stove, using a whisk continue stirring until mixture starts to thicken - take pot off the stove, then, add butter - whisking gently ensuring all butter is melted, - lastly adding the vanilla essence. Stir in gently.
6. The shells should still be rather warm when the filling is poured into them. The filling doesn't have to be cooled down prior to filling the shell.
7. Once shells are filled with the filling, sprinkle liberally with cinnamon.
8. The left over filling (if there is any) can be enjoyed poured over vanilla ice cream with a sprinkle of cinnamon for a "dessert".
9. Enjoy!
10. Please note that the cooking time may vary and this is an approximate "time" for cooking and preparation.