Milktart and pancakes, or more accurately melktert and pannekoek are both quintessential South African desserts. And together well, now we’re talking about the ultimate match.
My adoration for both of these desserts has been lifelong.
Pancakes have been a family favourite throughout my life. Almost every Sunday afternoon when that sweet tooth hits, my mom would offer to make a batch of crispy edged chewy centred pancakes.
We would all line up in the kitchen, plates in hand and be served a straight out of the pan, pannekoek. Which obviously meant no one ate theirs at the same time. Rather, they were dusted with cinnamon sugar, squeezed with lemon and drizzled with honey, then rolled up and eaten while standing and watching the next in line receive theirs.
Pancakes form only part of this creation, the other is milktart
I first fell in love with milktart while visiting my cousins in Knysna. Opposite their school gate was a tiny bakery that specialized in pies of all kinds. Local varieties of pies that is, no blueberry or rhubarb pies here.
Instead there were apple pies with a crumble topping. Savory mince pies spiced with Cape Malay flavours. Chicken pies just like my great aunt used to make. And my favourite pie, the reason for coming to the shop in the first place. A pie with a creamy white filling dusted with cinnamon and nutmeg, unmistakably… a milktart.
I’ll always remember walking into this tiny shop, with just one table covered in sweet and savory pies and being hit with a smell that only a bakery can give you. Walking out with a tiny greaseproof tuck-shop packet was the ultimate joy, such a simple pleasure. It’s remembering moments like these that remind me why I love baking. To revisit these memories, to revisit these tastes and smells and mostly to revisit that feeling.
I’ll forever be looking for that perfect milktart recipe that reminds me of those days and in that quest, I’ve come up with something quite different. A milktart crepe cake. This cake has layers of paper-thin chewy pancakes separated by a thin swirl of milktart custard flavored with cinnamon sticks and nutmeg.
Cinnamon and nutmeg, the only dusting worth having.
For me it’s the taste of my favourite South African desserts put together, and I highly recommend picking up the slice and eating it as you would a pizza. Not first date behavior but this is a recipe to be made for family and friends you’d like to spoil. Not for first dates.
As with all desserts there are some things to watch out for while making this crepe cake. The most important thing to watch is that you don’t get lumps in your custard. Be careful when you are adding the hot milk to the egg and sugar mixture. Do this slowly so as not to scramble the yolks. Ask someone to pour the hot milk slowly for you as you whisk the eggs or like me use a mixer with a beater attachment. Also burn those biceps while whisking the custard over the stove top, you don’t want to get lumps at this stage, after coming so far.
Another important tip, is the frying of the pancake mixture. You need the pan to be fairly hot but not too hot that it starts to burn the pancakes. Also, I add butter to the first pancake that I fry, but not again. There is enough butter in the batter mixture to allow you not to add more butter for the frying. With my frying pan at the perfect temperature, it takes 1 minute 30 seconds to fry the first side of the pancake and then 50 sec to fry the second side. For me these times ensure the perfect pancake every time.
Take your time stacking this cake to perfection and also take your time to enjoy all of the love you put into this bake.
With Love,
Kitty
📖 Recipe
Milktart Pancake Cake
Ingredients
Milktart Custard
- 600 ml milk
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, grated
- 65 grams egg yolks
- 65 grams castor sugar
- 2 tablespoon cornflour
Pancakes
- 4½ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 eggs
- 3 tablespoon sugar
- 6 tablespoon unsalted butter
Instructions
Milktard Custard
- Begin by making the milktart custard, place the milk, cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium pot over medium high heat. Heat the milk just before it begins to boil.
- Place the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in an electric mixer with a whisk attachment and beat until light and fluffy.
- Remove the cinnamon sticks from the milk. With the mixer running pour the hot milk slowly over the egg mix until fully incorporated.
- Place the mixture back into the saucepan over medium heat and whisk continuously until the custard thickens.
- Set the custard aside to cool to room temperature.
Pancakes
- Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Combine the butter, eggs and milk.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and slowly add the wet ingredients whisking as you go to avoid lumps. Continue until the wet ingredients are finished. The mixture should be free of lumps and quite runny.
- Place a frying pan over medium heat and once it is hot add one teaspoon of butter to coat the bottom of the pan. Add enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan and allow the pancake to cook for 1 minute and 30 seconds. Flip the pancake and cook on the other side for an additional 50 seconds or until golden.
- Continue cooking the remainder of the pancake batter in the pan, it is unnecessary to add additional butter after the first one.
Assembly
- Once all the pancakes are cooked and the custard has cooled, begin the assembly.
- Place one pancake on your serving dish and top with about two tablespoons of custard. Continue in this way, until you have stacked all of your pancakes.
- Allow the crêpe cake to set in the fridge for 30 minutes before cutting and serving.
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