MEET THE AUTHORS

Celebrate National Milk Tart Day on 27 February with a new recipe book called The South African Milk Tart Collection, by Callie Maritz and Mari-Louis Guy.

Why do a whole book about milk tarts? The idea always seemed too risky, despite our mutual obsession with milk tart. But after go! started punting National Milk Tart Day we realised that we weren’t alone. Mari-Louis was asked to do a promo for National Milk Tart Day on the set of the cooking show Koekedoor. Afterwards, she posted a few photos of her children eating milk tart on social media and she was surprised by the positive reaction. The time was right. Luckily we’d been doing milk tart research for decades!

The book has 60 milk tart recipes. How is one milk tart different from another? We were surprised to learn how small variations in ingredients can change the result. We tested nearly 100 recipes in the first round. For every shoot we made about 10 milk tarts and shared them with friends. Even those who were initially sceptical of the project began sending us recipes and seeking out new variations. At the end of the day, however, the idea was to rediscover a South African cultural treasure. We tried not to go too crazy with new ideas.

Total quantities of ingredients used? At least 40 kg of butter and nearly 500 eggs. We regularly ran out of cornflour.

How does the South African milk tart differ from its international cousins? The texture and the wonderful mouth-feel. Most variations we found overseas have a greater egg-to-milk ratio than a traditional South African milk tart. In South Africa we usually separate the eggs and use the egg whites at a later stage. This is not unique among milk tarts, but it is uncommon. Adding brandy or naartjie is certainly unique. Every country has its own version of the pastry-and-custard theme, but our milk tarts are by far the best.

How did you source all the recipes? Some well-known foodies contributed, like Ina Paarman, Zola Nene and Reuben Riffel. We also received lots of recipes from friends and family, most penned by a grandmother or great-grandmother. Some recipes had no clear method; others had unusual measurements or advice, for example “add a dash of brandy”. A day of baking milk tarts makes you miss your granny and your childhood.

What do you hope to achieve with this book? We want milk tart to become trendy again. Maybe a few tourists will also pick up a copy and share our milk tart mania with the world.