On tonight's Taste Like Home, Catherine Fulvio made a South African Milk Tart.

Ingredients

For the pastry:

  • 200g plain flour
  • 65g icing sugar
  • 130g cold butter 
  • 1vanilla bean 
  • 1egg
  • 1-3 tbsp of cold water, if needed

For the filling:

  • 550ml sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 tbsp. flour
  • 3 tbsp. corn-flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
  • 1tbsp. almond extract
  • ½ tsp. cinnamon
  • ½ tsp. nutmeg

Extra:

  • Strawberries, to serve 
  • Icing sugar to sprinkle on top

Method

For the pastry:

  1. Butter and flour a 23cm quiche tin pan with a removable base. 
  2. Preheat oven to 200 C / fan oven to 180 C or gas-mark 5.
  3. Place flour and sugar in a bowl and add the seeds from the vanilla bean and mix.
  4. Cut cold butter into small cubes and work slowly into flour, rubbing into a crumbly consistency. 
  5. Make a well and add the slightly beaten egg and if necessary some cold water, knead until the dough barely comes together.
  6. Remove dough from bowl and place on a work surface - knead just enough to incorporate all the dough. Do not overwork the dough; otherwise, it’ll be tough. When it’s ready, the dough will be barely moistened and come together into a ball.
  7. Let the dough rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
  8. Roll out and line the quiche tin with a 5mm thick layer of dough. Cover with baking parchment and fill with beans to bake blind.
  9. Place the tin in the centre of the preheated oven and bake pastry for about 20 minutes or until the crust is a light golden browned.
  10. Remove the parchment with the beans and bake for a further 5 minutes to brown the base lightly. Remove from oven and let cool.

Milk Filling:

  1. Place saucepan over medium heat, add condensed milk, nutmeg and cinnamon. Bring to a boil and remove from the heat.
  2. In another bowl, mix together flour, corn-flour, vanilla and almond extract- whisk in eggs until smooth. Gently whisk into the saucepan making sure there are no lumps.
  3. Now return the pan back on the heat - keep stirring constantly until it starts to bubble.
  4. Cook for 5 minutes on a very low heat constantly stirring. Remove from heat and pour mixture into the baked pastry shell.  Let it cool down and sprinkle with icing sugar before serving. 
  5. Serve cold with some strawberries or other tart fruits to balance the sweetness of the tart.