Gran’s Milk tart

We had a “Pik & Proe” at our church recently. Basically everyone makes their favourite recipe, it could be bread, pasta, veggies, salad, dessert, whatever you feel like basically. You then bring this dish to the church and everyone can try your dish.

I love it, you get so many ideas and new recipes. I decided to make my Gran’s Milk tart. Okay, okay I might have changed a few things to make it leaner, but it still tastes great!

Gran’s Milk tart

Ingredients:

1 pack short crust pastry (yes, I cheat)

1 litre low fat milk

150g Sugar

½ Vanilla pod

½t Cinnamon

70g Cake flour

50g Corn starch

2t Custard powder

½t Salt

3 Large Eggs (separated)

6T Water

60g Butter

1t Vanilla essence

Method:

1. Roll out the pastry and place it in a prepared 25cm pan. Bake blind at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and bake for another 5 – 10 minutes, until golden brown.
2.  In a pot add the milk, 50g sugar, cinnamon and vanilla (scrape out the vanilla seeds). Heat it until warm and keep it on a low heat.
3. Mix the egg yolk, water and 100g of sugar until it is light yellow.
4. Sift all the remaining dry ingredients into the egg mixture and mix well.
5. Take a cup of the warm milk and add it slowly to the egg mixture, mix well. This will warm the mixture before you add it to the pot. Slowly add the egg mixture to the warm milk on the stove. Stir continuously.
6. Keep the mixture on a low heat and stir continuously until it thickens. This will take some time, be patient. Add the butter and vanilla essence. Remove the mixture from the heat and remove the vanilla pod.
7. Use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites until it makes soft peaks.
8. Gently fold the egg whites into the warm milk mixture, make sure it is well combined.
9. Pour the mixture into the pan with the baked pastry. Dust with a bit of Cinnamon and bake for 20 minutes in a 180 degrees Celsius oven.
10. Let the milk tart cool completely before removing it from the pan.

There you have it, my Gran’s milk tart recipe. Be warned the first time you make this you will feel overwhelmed and uncertain. By the third time, you will feel like a professional! Don’t give up, it’s worth the effort!

Have a fantastic day!

Butternut and Chicken Quiche

It’s almost summer time again. The time of year where you never feel like cooked food, and you definitely don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen when you could be enjoying the sun. This is why I think quiche is the perfect summer dish. Its light and you can serve it hot or cold. You can keep it in the fridge and just add salad to complete the meal.

Quiche is versatile, you can add almost any combination and it will still taste divine! My favourite combo’s are spinach and feta, and butternut and chicken.

Today I want to share my Butternut and chicken recipe.

You’ll need to start with the crust. They say woman are better pastry chefs, because their hands are colder :). Cold is indeed the trick to a light and flaky pastry. Try to have all your ingredients as cold as possible.

Butternut and Chicken Quiche

 

Pastry - You will need:

220g Cake Flour

Pinch of salt

180g Room temperature Butter

1 egg yolk

Cold water

Sift flour and salt, and the butter. Gently rub the butter unto the flour using your fingertips, don’t overwork it.

Add the egg yolk and just enough cold water to make a stiff dough. Shape into a ball and wrap your pastry in cling wrap and leave in the fridge to chill for at least half an hour.

Again the key is not to over work the pastry, and to keep it chilled.

Now is the time you can start cooking the butternut and chicken for the filling.

Take the pastry out of the fridge and place it on a lightly floured surface.

Lightly flour the pastry and gently start to roll the pastry out.

It should be about 5mm thick, and big enough to fit a 24cm pie dish.

Place it in a dish, prick it with a fork and bake blind, (this means put some wax paper over your pastry and fill the dish with some beans or rice, it will help to keep the pastry’s shape) for 10 minutes in a 200 degrees Celsius oven.

Uncover the pastry and bake for another 7 minutes.

Your pastry is now ready to be filled with yummy ingredients.

Filling - You will need:

200g of cooked butternut,

2 Cooked chicken breasts flaked,

Some mushrooms thinly sliced,

1 fried onion,

Some chives, salt and pepper,

3 eggs + the left over egg white used in the pastry,

400ml of low fat Milk

Start by placing the fried onion all over the bottom of the pastry. Now layer the butternut, chives and chicken. Make sure that there’s an even spread of ingredients.

Now mix the eggs, milk, salt and pepper together. Pour this mixture over the filling ingredients.

Now bake the quiche in a 180 degrees Celsius oven for 30min or until golden brown.

The quiche will need to cool slightly; this will just help it set better.

There you have it, a basic quiche recipe. You can now make your own combination by replacing the butternut and chicken with your own ingredients, add more spices, try different things. You can even replace some of the milk with cream for a richer quiche.

Have fun!