Milk Tart with Coconut Filling – South African tradition tastes wonderful

It’s just about summer in South Africa and it’s time for more traditional South African treats to share with your family and friends. But, what is baking without putting your own creative spin on your desserts? The traditional milk tart is made with a light crust and a lovely milk and custard filling, topped with cinnamon, but today we add some coconut. Our Milk Tart with Coconut Filling is going to become your new tradition at home.

Also known as ‘melktert’ in Afrikaans, this recipe uses ratio of milk to eggs is higher than in a traditional Portuguese Custard Tart or Chinese egg tart, resulting in a lighter texture and a stronger milk flavour. With this recipe, we are adding a flavour and texture of coconut to give this great traditional dessert some extra character and flavour. The recipe also requires blind baking the crust which is just pre-baking it and weighting it down with rice or something similar.

This Milk Tart with Coconut filling is perfect for dessert after a big meal or as a tea-time snack with your friends. You might even end-up sneaking a slice at midnight which we wholeheartedly encourage. Enjoy this twist on a great traditional South African dessert.

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Milk Tart with Coconut Filling Recipe

Recipe by Irene Muller Course: DessertCuisine: South AfricanDifficulty: Moderate

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

Total time

45

minutes

Ingredients

• CRUST

• 62.5 g butter

• ¼ cup sugar

• 1 egg

• ¼ tsp salt

• ½ tsp custard powder

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 cup flour

• COCONUT FILLING

• 1 cup coconut

• ½ cup brown sugar

• 60 g butter

• CUSTARD FILLING

• 1 litre milk

• 1 tsp butter

• 3 eggs

• ½ tsp salt

• 1 cup sugar

• 2½ tbsp cornflour (Maizena)

• 1½ tbsp flour

• 1 tbsp custard powder

• 1 tsp almond essence

• cinnamon powder for sprinkling at the end

Method

• CRUST
• Preheat the oven to 180°C / 356°F
• Cream the butter and sugar then add the egg
• Add all the dry ingredients and work with you fingers until crumbly.
• Roll out your dough a little bit wider than usual, Place into the pie dish.  If the pie dish is a little taller than usual, they’ll have more room to shrink.  Or just press the dough evenly in pie dish. that will be fine.
• Prick with a fork the base of the dish and then blind bake for 15 minutes in a preheated oven. (blind bake – Add dried beans or rice in baking paper, place on crust)
• Remove from oven.  Remove the baking paper and let it cool.
• COCONUT FILLING
• Place the butter on medium heat, when melted add the sugar and coconut.  Keep on stirring until it has a lovely darker colour, do not burn.
• When crust has cooled add a layer of this on the bottom of the crust. Set aside.
• CUSTARD FILLING
• Bring the milk with added butter to the boil on medium with
• Using your mixer, beat the eggs, sugar and salt together.
• Mix the cornflour, flour and custard together, add to the egg mixture.
• Add 1 cup of the boiling milk and mix well.
• This egg mixture is added to the boiling milk, bring to the boil again, stir continuously until thickened. Ensure it does not burn.
• Add the custard to you pie dish, when cooled, sprinkle with cinnamon, place in fridge for at least 3 hours. 

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Looking for other traditional South African foods to make at home for your family and friends? We have excellent suggestions for you to try, just check out our recipes.