Belgium

BELGIUM: Mattentaart 

Isn’t it beautiful? Thanks for the suggestion Charlotti. I hope it looks how it’s supposed to. Big love from NM.

INGREDIENTS:

300 g/10,5 oz puff pastry
50 g/1,8 oz sugar
1.5 l/1,6 quarts whole milk
0.5 l/2 cups fresh thick buttermilk
2 eggs
45 g/1,7 oz ground almonds
1/8 wine glass of rum or almond extract
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
butter

DIRECTIONS:

Bring the milk to the boil. Add the buttermilk.

‘Matten’ or curds will start to form in the whole milk immediately. If the milk does not curdle, add a tablespoon of vinegar.

Stir for a short while, but don’t allow to boil
Remove the saucepan from the hob
Pour everything through a clean cloth and allow to leak overnight. The curds should be as dry as possible

The next day, mix the curds with a hand blender before baking. Roll out the puff pastry and use it to line the greased pie moulds (diameter of 15 cm/6 inches and height of 2 cm/0,8 inches)

Beat the egg whites. Stir the egg yolks, sugar, almonds and rum into the curds. Beat the mixture well. Then stir in the stiff egg whites

Fill the pies with the mixture. Cover with a thin layer of dough. Make a small incision in the middle of the top layer. Bake at 225°C/437° F for half an hour
Remove the mattentaart pies from their moulds and allow to cool.