Thursday 26 March 2009
Peppermint Tart or Peppermint Crisp Tart
Peppermint Tart or Peppermint Crisp Tart.
This is one of South Africa’s most popular ‘sweets’ served in coffee shops, restaurants and homes throughout South Africa. You’ll never go to a home industry (tuisnywerheid) and not find Peppermint Tart, unless it is sold out.
There is just one thing. When you do make it, please do it properly. People commit the most atrocious things in making what should be something decent. Here’s how. (And how not to)
Ingredients
1 pack tennis biscuits
1 tin caramelised condensed milk
500 ml fresh cream
1 large peppermint crisp chocolate bar
Method
-Put a single layer of tennis biscuits in the bottom of a shallow square glass or corningware type dish.
-Do not do the following: crumb the biscuits, mix with copious amounts of cheap margarine and make a ‘crust’ with it in the bottom of the dish. Thou shalt burn in Hell if you do.
-Spread half of the caramelised condensed milk onto the biscuits.
-Whip the cream to some rather stiff consistency (but do stop before it churns into butter) and spread half of it on the biscuits as well.
-Do not…Do not… Do not use Orley Whip or any other dairy alternative. It is evil.
-Grate half of the peppermint crisp evenly over the cream.
-Do not replace the peppermint crisp by mixing peppermint essence into the evil fake cream, please I beg of you!
- Repeat the above to make another layer on the first one.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour for the biscuits to turn a bit softer.
An acceptable variation is to mix the caramelised condensed milk with the whipped cream and spread that mixture onto the biscuits in layers. Just be careful to fold in the cream gently as not to stir out the air.
Once, living in the UK, I struggled my butt off to procure some chocolate with mint bits for I couldn’t find nestle peppermint crisp bars. I do not know about now, but at the time one couldn’t buy the ready made tins of Caramel Treat caramelised condensed milk as you do in SA. So fearful of all the horror stories I’ve heard about cans exploding I watched the pot for 3 hours as I boiled a tin of condensed milk so that it can caramelise (in Argentina they call it Dulce de Leche). I left it to cool and went to the shops to buy cream. An Evil Bitch (one of 4 SA’s I shared a house with) opened the can and ate all of it whilst I was away…
I gave up after that.
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2 comments:
Yummy - my mom does the peppermint crisp tart for Christmas or New Year lunch every year. It is expected of her. But she does commit a few of the sins you mention i.e. biscuit crust, Orley Whip - it still taste absolutely delightful though. I have done the overwhipped cream thing as well but now I have it down to fine art. While whipping I stop every now and then to shake the bowl and check consistency. My mom doesn't do this and her whipped cream is always sloppy. Going to make a note of your recipe - thanks.
When we were kids my friend Adri and I both caramelised a can on condensed milk. I can't remember how much of mine I ate, but I was pretty sick. The next time I went to Adri's house I saw that she still had LOTS of hers left and that she only ate it a big spoonful at a time. She would sort of suck on that spoon of caramel for, like, hours. Our friendship did not make it into high school, and frankly, I was not surprised.
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