Mealie Bread

As part of his hands on activities in his SA History studies, our youngest has been baking mealie bread recently. We were pleasantly surprised at how delicious this bread is. 

Here is the recipe:

1 cup mealie meal

1 cup flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

3 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

375ml milk

60ml butter melted

* heat the oven to 220 degrees C

* sift dry ingredients

* beat egg and milk together and add to dry ingredients to make a stiff batter

* add butter and beat until light and well mixed

* pour into greased bread tin

* bake for about 25 minutes

* eat and enjoy while warm

Though the texture is somewhat crumbly, each time he bakes this bread, it is devoured within minutes and thoroughly enjoyed! The proud little baker has also made a variation of the bread by adding freshly picked mixed herbs to the batter and it is just as good!

Traditional Milk Tart

As part of his SA history, our youngest recently made a traditional milk tart. I thought it would be fun to share the recipe with those who want to learn more about South African culture and traditional dishes.

Milk tart is a tasty dessert with a pastry crust and a creamy milk filling.

 It is delicious warm or cold and there are many different ways of making it. 

Here is the recipe he used, with a slight difference to suite our personal preference.

Ingredients:

puff pastry

1 litre milk

1 stick cinnamon

100ml sugar

100ml cake flour

pinch of salt

50ml butter

4 eggs

ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180 C

Roll out puff pastry and line a pie dish, then pre-bake

Remove once done and set aside

Boil milk with cinnamon stick and add butter to milk mixture

In a separate bowl, mix sugar, salt and cake flour

Add the hot milk slowly to this mixture, stirring well to prevent lumps

Add beaten eggs 

(our recipe suggests separating the eggs, adding yolks and folding in stiffly beaten whites 

but we prefer to add the whole eggs)

Return to low heat, allow mixture to thicken while stirring

We add a good dose of cinnamon to the mixture

Pour into pre baked crust

Bake at 180C for about 20 minutes until set and golden.

Remove from the oven, sprinkle with more cinnamon if you like and enjoy warm or cold.

He loved being able to prepare a tasty dessert for his family.