Makes: 2 Milk Tarts - Servings: 16 - Calories per serving: 285
Tip: Lovely if you use a roll of cinnamon ground in coffee grinder to dust tart - This is what I used in my picture - A 2nd option would be to use ground cinnamon sticks or bought powder.
If you can get your hands on one of these hand held pastry presses
It really does speed things up and presses the pastry out so nicely!
Every now and then I just dip mine into the flour bag as I go along.
My own pic as made 9 May 2013 - This is the original picture of Aunt Nella's milk tart how it should look if you follow my method. Don't forget to hold your stick blender at an angle to aerate and do not overbeat or your mixture will lose it's aeration.
A wonderful velvety smooth recipe. To reduce calories use my Gypsy-Rose Milk Tart (Does not have butter in filling). I use a whole nutmeg (11 Calories). I grate just a hint of nutmeg into my pastry, adding the balance to my bowl of dry ingredients.
Short-Crust Pastry: Total Calorie Count for 2 pastry cases (Pastry only) 1,012 Calories
Ingredients:
90 ml (84g) butter or a hard margarine. I prefer butter (May economise by using ½ & ½)
30ml castor sugar (20g) ..Save on costs and grind ordinary table sugar in blender
180ml (102 g) Cake Flour OR 60ml (20g) Corn flour with 120ml (68g) Cake flour
Pinch salt or to taste
Method: Sift together flour, castor sugar & salt. Rub in butter until it forms crumbs. Knead dough to form a ball. Press pastry (use a pastry press dipped into flour) into a 23cm diameter foil tart or baking dish. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 8 minutes if you want a soft pastry & 10 - 12 minutes for a crispier shortbread one. Remove from oven.
Ingredients (Filling): Total Calorie Count for 2 fillings: 3,541 Calories
1 litre full cream milk
250 g butter or a good tasting hard margarine - I prefer butter (1,793 Cal in butter)
¾ cup (187.5ml / 86g) Maizena or Corn flour
¾ (156 g) cup ordinary table sugar
2 large eggs (148 Cal)
Pinch salt or to taste
Splash vanilla essence / freshly grated nutmeg / 1-2 drops almond essence / splash caramel essence to taste, however you wish. Sometimes I just prefer nutmeg and cinnamon. All depends on your mood.
Method:
- Place milk in a 5 liter microsafe bowl and microwave 7 minutes or until it comes to a rolling boil (1000w oven).
- In another high bowl, weigh in your Maizena/corn flour, sugar, grate in your nutmeg if using & crack over your eggs. Using a stick blender cream it all until corn flour is fully incorporated and smooth. You may use a beater. Make sure corn flour is well covered and blend in with beaters off. Once it is well blended you may switch beaters on, or you will have corn flour flying all over your kitchen.
- As soon as milk comes to a rolling boil whilst beaters are running pour over boiling milk whilst continuously beating. Quickly place back in microwave 3 minutes. Beat again quickly so as not to allow too much heat to be lost and return to microwave oven for a further 3 minutes. Remove and beat again. Add your favourite flavourings in accordance with your own taste and pour out into your two pastry shells. Dust surface with cinnamon, cover with another pie foil plate and refrigerate to cool. Sets up fairly quickly in winter within an hour it will be ready to serve. Enjoy!
Total Calorie Count: 4,553 for both Milk Tarts (With reduced gluten). Tips on Cornstarch / Cornflour: Never overcook as it will begin to break down and thin out. Do not freeze any cooked recipe that contains cornstarch.
Excessive Cooking:Simmering or boiling a corn starch thickened mixture for an extended period oftentimes may cause the starch cells to rupture and the mixture to thin.
Freezing: Freezing corn-starch thickened mixtures will rupture the starch cells and cause the mixture to thin out.