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!

Pineapple meringue

Yesterday we celebrated woman’s day in South-Africa. It was a glorious sunny day! We had a family braai, and made some chicken burgers and salad. The culinary star of the day? Pineapple meringues. 

I found this recipe on weighless facebook page, thank you weighless!! I must admit, if been on weighless for a few months now, and just by eating a healthy programme I’ve already lost 6kg. I’m taking it slow, and really trying to incorporate the vallues I learn on this programme into my lifestyle.

As you can see, it was a great success! It looked so pretty, and tasted divine.  I tweaked the recipe a bit, because I don’t like sugar replacements. This recipe made about 12 small meringues.

Yes I used Pink, it was woman's day :)

Pineapple meringue

1/4 cup Castor Sugar
1 tbsp butter
3 eggs (separated)
1/2 cup corn starch
2 tsp vanilla essence
225g Canned Crushed Pineapples with juice (weighless has a nice range of products, check it out)
1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
6 tbsp castor sugar

Pinch of salt

1. Cream together the sugar, butter and egg yolks. Add 1 tsp of vanilla essence, salt, the corn starch and stir well. Now add the pineapple. Wisk the ingredients in a pot over a low heat until the mixture thickens.
2. Cup the mixture into 12 brightly coloured cupcake holders. Set aside to cool.
3. Next take your egg whites (make sure there is no yolk in this otherwise it won’t work), whisk with an electric whisk until the whites start to foam.
4. Now add the cream of tartar and castor sugar slowly while whisking.
5. Whisk until soft peaks form (do not over whisk your egg whites)
6. Spoon over the cooled pineapple and bake in a 200 degree oven for about 5-7 minutes or until the meringues start to brown.

As you can see it is easy and simple to make. It was cheerful and beautiful, just what we needed on such a lovely public holiday.

I hope you enjoy making these.