Baked Milk Tart (Gebakte Melktert)

Ingredients

• 250 grams all-purpose flour
• 32 grams powdered sugar
• 3 grams fine table salt
• 125 grams cold butter (diced into 2 cm cubes)
• 50 grams egg (beaten and sieved)
• 750 grams whole milk
• whole cinnamon stick
• 3 strips dried naartjie or tangerine peel
• 1/3 whole nutmeg (finely grated)
• 67 grams white sugar
• 3 each large whole eggs
• 1 each large egg yolk
• 45 grams cornstarch
• 25 grams all-purpose flour
• 8 grams vanilla extract
• 3 grams fine table salt
• 30 grams unsalted butter
• Ground cinnamon, for dusting

Instructions

1. 1

   --- Pastry and tart shell ---

2. 2

   Sift the flour and powdered sugar into a bowl and add the salt. Rub in the cold diced butter with your fingertips until it looks like coarse sand with a few small butter bits still visible. Work fast so the butter stays cold.

3. 3

   Add the beaten, sieved egg and mix just until the dough starts to clump. Press it together on the bench without kneading, shape into a flat disc, wrap, and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.

4. 4

   Butter a 23 cm dish about 3 cm deep and chill it.

5. 5

   Let the dough lose its fridge chill for a few minutes, then roll it to about 3 mm on a floured surface. If it tears, pinch it back together.

6. 6

   Roll the pastry around the pin, unroll it over the dish, and ease it into the corners without stretching. Press it into the flutes, leave a small overhang above the rim for shrinkage, and trim. Chill the shell until firm. Preheat the oven to 170°C.

7. 7

   Prick the base with a fork, line with parchment, and fill with a thin layer of rice or dried beans. Bake 12 minutes, remove the parchment and weights, then bake 6 more minutes until the base is golden and fully cooked.

8. 8

   --- Filling and baking ---

9. 9

   Infuse the milk: warm the milk, cinnamon stick, naartjie peel, and grated nutmeg until it just starts to simmer. Off the heat, cover, and steep for at least 1 hour, overnight in the fridge is better.

10. 10

    Whisk the sugar, whole eggs, yolk, cornstarch, flour, vanilla, and salt to a smooth, lump-free paste.

11. 11

    Reheat the infusion to just below a simmer. Strain it onto the paste in a slow stream, whisking hard the whole time. Discard the cinnamon and peel.

12. 12

    Pour everything back into the pan over medium-low heat. Whisk constantly to a full boil, thick, with big slow bubbles, then boil for about 10 seconds, still whisking.

13. 13

    Off the heat, add the butter and blitz with a stick blender for 30 to 60 seconds until glossy and completely smooth.

14. 14

    Sieve the custard into the baked shell and smooth the top roughly level. Raise the oven to 180°C.

15. 15

    Bake about 25 minutes, rotating once for even color, until the surface sets into a skin and browns in patches.

16. 16

    Cool in the dish on a wire rack to room temperature.

17. 17

    Dust the cooled surface with ground cinnamon, generous but light, and slice into 8.