Melktert

Ingredients

• Flour for the base250 g
• Butter130 g
• Sugar200 g
• Eggs3
• Milk1 l
• Cornflour40 g
• Flour for the filling40 g
• Cinnamon stick1
• Ground cinnamon2 tsp
• Vanilla1 tsp
• Salt1 pinch

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Rub the flour with the cold butter, a spoon of sugar and an egg into a dough and chill it half an hour.

   35 min

2. 2

   Line a tin with the pastry and blind-bake it at 180 °C for fifteen minutes, to a pale gold.

   20 min

3. 3

   Heat the milk with the cinnamon stick until hot and leave it to infuse ten minutes.

   14 min

4. 4

   Whisk the remaining eggs with the sugar, flour, cornflour, vanilla and salt until smooth.

   6 min

5. 5

   Pour in the hot milk in a thin stream, whisking constantly, and return it to the heat.

   8 min

6. 6

   Cook over medium heat for eight minutes, until the filling thickens to the body of double cream.

   10 min

7. 7

   Pour the filling into the base, chill it three hours and dust it with ground cinnamon before serving.

   12 min

About the dish

The filling sets on flour and starch rather than eggs. Only two eggs go into a litre of milk, and that makes melktert lighter and milkier than any custard tart.

The cinnamon is dusted onto the surface after the filling has set rather than baked with it. Otherwise it sinks in and gives none of that contrast.

The tart is served cold, from the fridge. Warm, it does not cut but spreads, and the filling stays liquid in the middle.

Worth knowing

• — The milk goes into the eggs rather than the other way round. Otherwise hot milk scrambles them and the filling goes grainy.
• — Keep stirring to the very end. Flour settles to the bottom and catches faster than a purely egg-set custard.
• — Dust the cinnamon through a sieve in an even layer. Spooned on, it lands in patches and turns bitter where it is thick.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

380 kcal

Protein

9 g

Fat

16 g

Carbs

52 g

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