Milk Tart
This easy, rich, and creamy milk tart (melktert) is the perfect entertaining pie with a simple press-in shortcrust pastry. Get smooth South African cheesecake vibes without the work, time, and expense.
It doesn’t take much to make this delicious, perfect-for-celebrating tart. This popular dessert qualifies as quick and easy to whip up in a pinch. The ingredients are probably right in your pantry, so no extra shopping is needed for a satisfying made-from-scratch dessert.
And the best part? It’s great for the holiday season. Melktert, as it’s called in Afrikaans, is a creamy custard pie with a delicate, lighter texture and a strong milk presence.
What the Texture Is Like
Don’t wait for this pie to firm up because it just doesn’t; it’s more of a pudding with a crust. Even better, you don’t have to roll out the pate sablée, the traditional sweet pastry crust. All you do is press the dough into the pie (tart) pan, freeze for 30 minutes, and then bake without weights. Freezing prevents the shortcrust from getting crazy.
How to Make Milk Tart
- Pulse the flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor a couple of times. Then toss in the butter and pulse until a rough dough forms. Pulse in the egg yolk and knead just until it comes together into a ball.
- Press the dough into the prepared tart pan, working from the center out until the bottom and sides are fully covered. Freeze it and bake it until golden brown.
- Heat the milk, butter, and spices. Then mix the sugar, extracts, and thickeners.
- Mix the eggs into the thickening mixture, then whisk it into the hot milk, and simmer until thickened. Pour it into the tart crust, dust with cocoa powder or cinnamon, and chill it.
Recipe Tips
- Make the crust ahead of time, bake it, and leave it at room temperature for up to 2 days until ready to make the tart.
- You can also make shortbread cookies with this dough.
- Don’t feel guilty about using a store-bought pie crust if pressed for time.
- A lot of recipes call for infusing the milk with a cinnamon stick, so go for it if you have some handy.
Making it Ahead and Storage
Since it benefits greatly from chilling, this custard-like pie is great for making the day before. Cover well with plastic wrap and slice it when ready to enjoy.
Even though it will last in the fridge for 3-4 days (even up to a week), I don’t recommend freezing it. The filling may separate and start to weep. If you know, you know.
More Delectable South African Dessert Recipes
- Traditional Koeksisters
- Pampoenkoekies
- Malva Pudding
- Aebleskiver Danish Pancakes
- Condensed Milk Cake
By Imma
This blog post was originally published in November 2014 and has been updated with additional tips and new photos.
Milk Tart
Ingredients
Pastry Crust (pâte sablée or pâte sucrée)
- 1½ cups (180g) all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup (40g) confectioner's sugar
- ¼ teaspoon (2g) salt
- 9 tablespoons (125g) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (cold or frozen)
- 1 large egg yolk
Milk Filling
- 2¼ cups (530ml) milk
- 2 tablespoons (28g) butter
- ½ teaspoon (1-2g) ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon (1-2g) nutmeg (or more cinnamon)
- 2 tablespoons (15g) flour
- 3-4 tablespoons (22-30g) cornstarch
- ½ cup (100g) sugar
- 2 teaspoons (10ml) vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon (2-3ml) almond extract (optional)
- 2 large eggs
- cocoa powder or ground cinnamon for dusting
Instructions
Pastry Crust
- Grease a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, making sure it is well coated. Set aside.
- Place flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to mix the ingredients.
- Toss in the butter and pulse until a rough dough forms.
- Add the egg yolk and pulse until the dough barely comes together.
- Remove the dough, place it on a work surface, and knead just enough to incorporate everything, working the dough as little as possible. Overworked dough will make tough pastry. When it's ready, it will be barely moist and come together into a ball.
- Lightly press the dough onto the prepared pie pan, working from the center out until the bottom and sides are fully covered. Again, be gentle when pressing the dough onto the pie pan.
- Place the pie crust in the freezer for at least 30 minutes to prevent the dough from rising during baking. If you are in a rush, weigh it down with beans to prevent it from rising.
- Place the rack in the center of the oven, then preheat it to 400℉ (205℃).
- Bake the crust for 20-25 minutes or until it's dry and golden brown. Set aside.
Milk Filling
- Place a saucepan over medium heat, add milk, butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and bring it to a boil. Remove it from the heat.
- In another bowl, mix the flour, cornstarch, sugar, and the extracts. Whisk in the eggs until smooth. Gently whisk the mixture into the saucepan, stirring constantly to avoid lumps.
- Now return the pan to the heat and keep stirring constantly until it starts to bubble. Cook for 5-6 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and pour the mixture into the baked pastry shell. Sprinkle it with cocoa powder or ground cinnamon and chill until ready to serve.
Tips & Notes:
- Pâte sablée and pâte sucrée have the same ingredients, but the process is different and delivers slightly different results. The pâte sablée is crumblier, while the pâte sucrée puffs up more. I won’t tell anyone if you use a different crust.
- If, in spite of your best efforts, there are lumps in the milk filling, an immersion blender will take care of it. Just be careful not to burn yourself.
- Please remember that the nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary significantly based on the products used in the recipe.
In Afrikaans it is actually called Melk-tert and not Mel-tert (‘Melk’ means milk and ‘tert’ means tart). I usually make my gran’s Melktert recipe, but I am excited to try yours this weekend!
Will comment on how it turned out 🙂
Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on this, Nita! Enjoy!
Absolute best melktert recipe ever! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much, Emma! Glad you like it.
Hi
A colleague brought Meltert to work today following your recipe. It was delicious and i plan to make it for a party next weekend.
I am a bit confused on the quantitty of the ‘butter’ mentioned in the recipe. Can you please write it down in this comment for me?
Xoxo
T.
HI, Tee. The recipe calls for 128 g (9 tbsp) of unsalted butter (cold or frozen cut into small pieces) for the pastry crust and 29 g (2 tbsp) of butter for the filling. Hope this helps.
I’m a South African and I’ve eaten *a lot* of milk tarts. Almost every weekend. School events. Parties. You name it. We’re no longer living in SA and my hubby requested it. I followed this recipe but left out the nutmeg as another SA lady suggested.
It was hands down the best milk tart I’ve ever eaten. Both my mom (visiting) and husband agreed! Thank you so much. I can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
Awww, thank you so much, Jo! That means a lot to me! Thank your for taking the time to share your feedback. 🙂
Hi, do you remember a South African cooking book, I remember only one word “ Kettle “
I am searching all over, cannot find it, maybe your Mom remember?
Please can u help?
Thanks a lot!!
Orlyn Ellison
orlyn.ellison@gmail.com
Are you referring to the Kettle Braai cookbook? If so, I have it
SO glad I’ve found this! Going to substitute the spices for lemon. My mom absolutely loves tarts but we never seem to have double cream in when I need it, didn’t think milk would set like this but it gives me all kinds of ideas!
Yes it does.
Hi,
What a lovely site. The recipe looks promising.
Any chance you know how many grams – are the equel – of the 9 TBLS noted in your recipe ?
Hi,
It’s about 125 grams. Thanks.
Thank you!
BTW, The tart turned out fabulous! ! My dad said it reminded him of sweet childhood memeorie 🙂
Awesome! Thank you so much for taking the time to share this with me.
Happy Holidays to you and your family!!!
Thank you for this great recipe!
Glad you liked it.
im going to make this in Belgium for husband and his family. but im lost at the butter for the crust… is it 9 tablespoons or 1 stick (what size? ) 1 tablespoon and 9 tablespoons… please advise. cant wait to make this…♡
Sorry about the confusion, it’s 9 Tablespoons butter.
As a South-African knowing a good milk tart, this one passes 100%. However, we dont add Nutmeg to the milk mixture in SA. I made it according to your recipe and the nutmeg was very overpowering in the milk mixture. So i would suggest that if you love it, add it but the original way is no nutmeg inside and only cinnamon on top. But other than that, lovely tart, great crumbly base
Awesome! Thanks for the feedback!
Love your website
Hi Antonio! Thanks for letting me know!
Wow Firstly!!
Please let me know if the custard fllling sets almost jello ish or liquidy. I prefer a more wobbly jello like finish and not runny custatd ,,, thank you in advance❤️
Hi Anisa! I think this would be perfect for you jello ish and wobbly .
Thanks for a super easy recipe!
Thanks for sharing. I was googling for milk tart recipes and I’m glad I clicked on your site. I do have a suggestion though. I think you should highlight the “Milk Filling” line same as the crust ingredients. I got confused how there was so much pastry crust ingredients. But still, you write really well and the photos are great also. Thank you.
Thanks Mary. Will do now.
Hey,
just wanted to tell you that I baked your Milk Tart and it was DELICIOUS!
Everything went good and the steps were really easy to follow.
Thank you for sharing!
Awesome! Glad it worked out well for you.
These look delicious. I like your desserts. I have an event where I can sell some of these desserts there. Hope they like them!
Thanks. They sure would.
I cant get my hands on corn starch or custard powder. Can I substitute the corn starch with potato starch?
You sure can.
You can use corn flour…… and you can buy both cornstarch and custard powder on Amazon.Com
Cornstarch is just plain old Maizena – I imagine you can get that anywhere? I think in some places it would be called “cornflour” which may be the source of the confusion.
This is my go to recipe for milktart but without the almond extract! Thank you so much for a great recipe!
Awesome! Glad to hear this.
Looks REALLY good, will definitely try it out! But one question: Is the tart still good the next day?
It sure is Sophia! Make sure you cover it to keep it fresh.
Can you freeze this milk tart after its been baked?
Carmen.I have never tried freezing it, so I can’t say for sure.Will definitely try freezing when I make it next time.
It does not thaw well – milktart never really does. The liquids make crystals when you freeze it and then there is some separation when they thaw again, because it doesn’t all thaw at the same speed. It becomes clumpy with some runny bits. I would rather eat it fresh and then make some more when you need it.
Thanks Jessica.
This tart looks amazing! Oh I’d love a bite out of that right about now.
Dear Imma, i am drooling,for the oddest reason, this reminds me of snickerdoodles and gooey butter cake …….all because of the cinnamon on topping.
Naa, you are going to go crazy once you take a bite. I almost finished eating the filling before pouring it into the pastry shell.
This looks sooooooo good!!!! (: G-d bless, Sis:)
Thanks Arisa.
I’m so amazed that the milk filling sets like that! I never would have guessed that from reading the ingredients. It’s giving me all sorts of ideas for other things I could use the filling for (because I have a fear of making my own pastries)! Pinning, thanks for sharing this Imma!!
Nagi, thanks for pinning.I can’t wait to see what you make out of this.