Milk Tart/Meltert – Easy, Rich and Creamy – Perfect entertaining pie with an easy press-on pastry crust. 
It doesn’t take much to make this delicious, perfect-for-entertaining tart. This popular South African milk tart qualifies as one of those quick and easy tarts to whip up in a pinch. All the ingredients for this milk tart are right in your pantry – no extra shopping needed and it is all made from scratch. And the best part – it is very comforting and great for the holiday season. 
Milk Tart or as the Afrikaans call it Meltert is a creamy milky tart. A little reminiscent of custard pie but more delicate, with a lighter texture and a strong milk presence. Don’t wait for this pie to firm up – it just doesn’t, more of a pudding with a crust. It is made with a sweet pastry crust often referred to as Pate sablée, the good thing about this pastry is that you do not have to worry about rolling it out – all you do is press the crust into the pie pan – freeze for 30 minutes and then bake without weight. Freezing prevents the pie from rising. 
Here are a couple of tips when making milk tart
- You can make the crust ahead of time, bake and leave out until ready to be use.
- Use store bought pastry pie if you are pressed on time
- Switch up the flavors, I used nutmeg and cinnamon
- A lot of recipes call for throwing in a cinnamon stick so it infuses the milk mixture – if you have some handy by all means use it, if not just use cinnamon spice.
Enjoy!
Milk Tart
Ingredients
Sucre Patee (Pastry Crust)
- 1 1/2 cups (188 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup (35grams ) confectioner’s sugar powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 9 Tablespoons (125grams) unsalted butter(cold or frozen) , cut into small pieces
- 1 large egg yolk
Milk filling
- 2 1/4 ( 496 ml) cups milk
- 2 tablespoon (28grams) butter
- 2 tablespoons (20 grams) flour
- 3-4 tablespoons (23- 30grams) cornstarch
- 1/2 cup (100grams) sugar
- 2 Large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract (optional)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg or replace with cinnamon
Instructions
Pastry Crust
- Butter or spray a 9-inch pie pan with a removable bottom – making sure it is has been adequately sprayed. Set aside
- Place flour, salt and sugar in a food processor pulse for a couple of times to mix ingredients.
- Throw in butter and pulse until rough dough forms.
- Then add egg yolk - pulse until the dough barely comes.
- Remove dough place on a work surface - knead just enough to incorporate all the dough. Working the dough as little as possible.
- Do not overwork the dough; otherwise it’ll be too tough. When it’s ready, the dough will be barely moistened and come together into a ball.
- Lightly press the dough on the prepare pie pan – working from the center up until the bottom and sides are fully covered with pastry – again be very gentle when pressing the dough onto the pie pan.
- Place pie pan in the freezer and freeze for at least 30 minutes or more this helps prevent the dough from rising- if you are in a rush brick, then bake with beans to prevent rising.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven
- Bake crust for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the crust is dry and golden browned. Set aside
Milk Filling
- Place saucepan over medium heat, add butter, nutmeg and milk -bring to a boil and remove from the heat.
- In another bowl, mix together flour, cornstarch, sugar, vanilla and almond extract- whisk in eggs until smooth. Gently whisk into the saucepan making sure there are no lumps
- Now return the pan back on the stove – keep stirring constantly until in starts to bubble.
- Cook for about 5-6 minutes. Remove from heat and pour mixture into the baked pastry shell Sprinkle with cinnamon. Chill until ready to be served.
Tips & Notes:
- You can make the crust ahead of time, bake and leave out until ready to be use.
- Use store bought pastry pie if you are press for time
- Switch up the flavors, I used nutmeg and cinnamon- just love the flavor combination
- A lot of recipes call for throwing in cinnamon stick so it infuses the milk mixture – if you have some handy by all means use it, if not just use cinnamon spice.
Nutrition Information:
Emma says
Filling was very firm and rubbery. If making again I would try with just over half the flour measurements – maybe 2 Tablespoons of each flour type. Flavour was nice despite unpleasant texture.
Immaculate Bites says
Sorry it turned out that way, Emma. But yes, around 2 tablespoons should be fine for next time 🙂 Thank you for making this!
andrew says
Lekker!
Immaculate Bites says
Thank you, Andrew!
Chris says
I have just made this melktert. The amount given in ml for the milk is incorrect. 2 1/4 cups of milk is 496 ml. Not 296 ml. I made it for a South African friend whose birthday is today, which happens to be Melktert day, 27h February. I’m waiting for her take on it.
ImmaculateBites says
Thanks . Recipe updated .
Jeanne Barnes says
I actually threw out my grandmothers milk tart recipe because I love this one so much and it’s quicker and easier to make!
I live in Australia and make this for my Aussie friends and everyone absolutely loves it. I serve it up with a few blueberries/strawberries and a bit of whipped cream on the side.
I used half the amount of sugar for the filling and it was still delicious! Thanks for sharing.
Kelly says
Hi – I think the problem here is that the metric and imperial measures are not converting accurately, so imperial calls for 3-4 spoons of cornstarch and metric calls for 2! It’s hard to know which one to follow.
ImmaculateBites says
3-4 Tablespoons would do just fine.
Lisa says
I’ve made this recipe several times for friends from South Africa. They say it tastes just like they remember from home. My own family loves it too – it’s such a homey comforting food. I also love how easy it is to make. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Imma Adamu says
You’re welcome, Lisa! I’m glad that you and your friends loved it!
Michael Schach says
Filling was extremely stodgy … please review the gram weight values for the flour in the filling … 2 tablespoons should be more around 20g … not 57g . Had to scramble by adding another 225 g milk to compensate
ImmaculateBites says
So sorry to hear about this . Recipe has been updated . Thanks
Michelle says
There were a few comments on this recipe complaining that the filling was too runny. The tbsp equivalent of the flour is stated incorrectly in the recipe, hence some people battling – I weighed the flour (which ends up being around 7 tbsps), and that worked. A very yummy version of this South African treat!
ImmaculateBites says
I just made this recipe and 3-4 tablespoons of cornstarch works just fine . Milk tart is not suppose to be too firm. Have updated recipe.
Thanks for taking time out to share this this .
Jeff says
Simple and delicious. I used both cinnamon and nutmeg in the mixture (because I misread the instructions), and it turned out great. I used lowfat (1.5%) milk and cut back a tiny bit on the sugar, but the flavour didn’t suffer for it at all.
ImmaculateBites says
Thanks for sharing .Am so thrilled !
Stephanie says
This was so amazing! I’m South African and have been living abroad for year. I made this for a dinner party and was so happy with how it turned out. I’d like to note that I made the pastry without a food processor and didn’t mind it too difficult at all. I would also highly recommend making this with full cream milk. Also half the nutmeg and no vanilla essence for a more traditional tasting milk tart
ImmaculateBites says
Thanks for the feedback. Glad to hear it worked out well.
Charley de greeve says
Saw this yesterday and thought I’d give it a go last night for my dad who is originally from SA, and I forgot to put the vanilla essence in tried again this afternoon, and used the half/half nutmeg – cinnamon in the mixture instead of just nutmeg.SO HAPPY with it! Takes me straight back to Durban❤️ Just make sure you keep mixing when on the job, and use heaped spoons of the cornflour. Thankyou so much for sharing x
ImmaculateBites says
Glad it worked out well, charley. Thanks for taking time out to share your thoughts with us .