Milktart with Pink Lady® apples by Ina Paarman

Bring the milk and broken cinnamon to the boil. Cover, remove from the heat, leave to draw for 20 minutes and then add butter.

Cook the sliced apples in apple juice and sugar for about 20 minutes. Dish it into a 25 cm pie dish and leave to cool. Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 180°C.

Prepare a paper collar using a long strip of greaseproof paper that will fit right around the dish. Keep the collar ready on the side with two paper clips.

Remove the cinnamon stick from the milk. Separate the eggs. 

Add a little of the warm milk to the yolks and then add the yolks and the Vanilla Cake Mix to the warm milk mixture in the pot.
Add almond essence.

Stir with a wire whisk just until the mixture starts to thicken on the bottom of the pot, immediately remove it from the heat and keep stirring, away from any heat, until the consistency is like a thickish yoghurt.

Whip the whites to soft peak stage with clean beaters.

Add 1/3 of the beaten whites and stir it through with the whisk. Add the remaining egg white and gently fold it in with a spatula.
Dish it into the pie dish on top of the cooked apples. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over.

Wrap the paper collar around the dish. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes until puffy. Switch off the oven (and the fan) and leave to stand in the oven to cool for 15 minutes.

Best to keep the paper collar on until the tart has cooled down. This milk tart is easier to slice at room temperature.

Recipe supplied by Ina Paarman.