In Ramadaan the iconic Indian beverage Falooda takes centre stage. The signature rose and cardamom flavours are refreshing in the milky drink served at iftar time when Muslims break their fast. The flavour also lends itself beautifully to being incorporated into desserts like Falooda pudding and Phirni among others.

This week I had to bribe Taufeeq, my 7-year-old with milk tart, his favourite dessert, at iftar so he would be encouraged to keep his fast for the full day. He is managing well so far having kept full days for the first 12 days save 2 where he only managed half days. I love seeing his excitement when I present treats at iftar time. I try not to every night but occasionally it’s a great incentive for young kids just starting to fast. I got to thinking the rose and cardamom flavour would be interesting to incorporate into the tart and decided to see how it would turn out. I am happy to report it is a sure-fire winner. We all loved it and it will definitely be made again. I added pistachios as a finishing touch which gives it just that bit of extra pizzazz. Don’t skip it.

Falooda Milk Tart Recipe

Recipe: Hungry for Halaal
Photos: Hungry for Halaal
Prep time: 40 mins
Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 1 hour
Serves: 6 to 8

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 cup Cake Flour
• 1 cup Self Raising Flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 125g butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• pinch salt
• pinch cinnamon

Filling

• 2 cups milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 Tbsp butter
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 Tbsp cake flour
• 1 1/4 Tbsp corn flour
• pinch salt
• pinch cinnamon
• pinch cardomom
• 1-2 drops red food colouring
• 1/2 tsp rose essence
• finely chopped pistachios

Method

For the Crust

1. Preheat oven to 180˚C.
2. Beat butter and sugar till creamy. Add egg and beat. Add rest of crust ingredients and knead together well. Or blits the whole lot in a food processor till the dough comes together.
3. Roll out to about 3mm thick to fit a large-sized tart plate or cut rounds to fit a 12 hole muffin pan. It needs to be quite thin for the muffin pans otherwise the pastry puffs up too much leaving too little room for the filling.
4. Press into the pie plate or muffin tin. Prick all over with a fork.
5. Bake for 10 minutes.

For the Filling

1. Heat milk to almost boiling. Add the butter.
2. Beat egg and add the other filling ingredients to the beaten egg.
3. Pour over some of the warmed milk to loosen the mixture and pour the mixture into the pot with the rest of the milk. Allow to come to a boil and thicken while stirring.
4. Remove from heat and add the essence and 1 drop of the colouring and mix. If you prefer it darker add another drop.
5. Pour the mixture into the shell/s.
6. Bake another 10 minutes.
7. Remove from oven immediately top with chopped pistachios.
8. Allow to cool. This is great if it stands overnight to set even more.
9. The flavour is best cold after it’s been refrigerated.

Tip: If you dont’ have rose essence, leave out the colouring and the essence and use 2 or 3 tablespoons of rose syrup instead.

Find the original Milk Tart recipe here: Classic Milk Tart