RECIPE
Milk Tart, Traditionally South African
It reminds you of custard pie but is more delicate and ‘milky’
Being a born and bred South African, it won’t surprise you I had my fair share of milk tarts in the twenty-eight years I lived in my country of birth. Now I have been in The Netherlands for 27+ years, and in those years, I might’ve had it about five times.
Why?
Because I can’t bake.
No matter how meticulously I follow a recipe, my baking is always a failure. The taste is good, but that’s about it. It’s actually a running joke in the family that my baking never succeeds.
An aunt of mine is a fabulous baker. She has always been a housewife, and I remember times from my childhood when her kitchen was filled with jars and jars full of different cookies. One question could be heard several times a day: “May we have a cookie?”
Her milk tart — melktert in Afrikaans — was the best. Whenever we visited, she always had milk tart, sometimes even two, so everyone could have second helpings. It wasn’t only then that I ate it, as my parents both made it too, so it was something we regularly had.
Incidentally, the Dutch settlers introduced this sweet pie with its milk-based filling to Cape The Good…
