Verleivallei Melktert

Milk tart with lavender or pelargonium flowers

Lose your heart with this seductive spin on an old-time favourite
Ingredients:
Pastry
500 g all-purpose flour
100 g icing sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp lavender flowers or pelargonium flowers
250 g butter
2 eggs
Method:

1. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the mixture just forms a ball. Be careful not to over process the pastry.
2. Press into a prepared spring form cake tin to line the sides and base of the tin. Place in the freezer for a few minutes so as to allow the pastry to set.
3. Blind bake the pastry by lining the inside of the pastry shell with foil or baking paper and filling it with raw rice or hard beans. Place in the oven at 180˚C and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the crust starts to turn a lovely golden brown.
4. Remove the paper and the rice or beans and pour in the milk tart filling to bake.

Filling

Ingredients:
1 litre of full cream milk
2 cinnamon sticks
150 ml all purpose flour
50 ml corn-starch
50 ml custard powder
250 ml milk
3 eggs
125ml white sugar
50 ml butter
2 tsp Bossieveld Inspiration gin
½ tsp vanilla essence
Method:

1. Gently heat the milk and the cinnamon and set aside to infuse for a few minutes. Remove the cinnamon.
2. Mix the flour, corn-starch, custard powder and sugar with a little hot milk to form a smooth paste. Add to the hot milk and whisk thoroughly to avoid lumps. Return to the stove.
3. Gently bring the mixture to the boil and simmer until it starts to thicken. Remove from the stove.
4. Whisk the egg yolks with a little of the hot milk mixture and then beat into the thickened mixture with a whisk.
5. Stir the butter, gin and vanilla into the hot milk mixture.
6. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form and fold into the milk mixture with a whisk.
7. Pour into the pan and bake at 180˚C until golden brown approximately 40 to 45 minutes or until the centre is set.
8. Remove from the oven and let cool.
9. When the pan is cool enough to handle, remove the tart from the pan and slide onto a serving plate.
10. Sprinkle with the lavender or pelargonium sugar (see below) and a light sprinkling of cinnamon.
11. Drizzle with the ginger and Bossieveld Inspiration gin syrup (see below) before serving.

Lavender or pelargonium infused sugar

Method:
Pick and wash a tablespoon of flowers of your choice. Remember to only add the flowers and not the stems as the flavour will then be too overpowering. Add to a cup of caster sugar and store in an airtight container until needed.

Bossieveld Inspiration Gin and ginger syrup

Ingredients:
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup water
¼ cup Bossieveld Inspiration Gin
200 ml tonic water
1 large knob of ginger, cut into match sticks
1 cinnamon stick
Method:

1. Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and gently heat while stirring to dissolve the sugar.
2. Bring the syrup to a boil and let simmer until the liquid is thick and syrupy. Strain.
3. Pour into a sanitized bottle and seal when cooled. Drizzle this syrup over the milk tart just before serving.

You can also use this syrup as part of a cocktail: pour 25 ml into a glass filled with ice. Add a single tot of Bossieveld Inspiration gin and top up with tonic water. Garnish with slices of yellow peaches.