Jode Tert

Name: Jode Tert
Ingredients: Short pastry:; 250 gm butter, softened; 200 gm caster sugar; 2 eggs, beaten; 5 ml (1 teaspoon) vanilla essence; 300 gm cake flour; 2 ml salt; Custard filling:; 80 gm cake flour; 150 gm caster sugar; 4 egg yolks; Pinch of salt; 5 ml (1 teaspoon) vanilla essence; 1 litre milk

This is my Mothers recipe for a favourite South African cake called Jode Tert. It translates into Jewish Tart and it has it roots in Eastern Europe. It is layers of short pastry and custard stacked on top of each other. It is a real treat.

Published 12 May 2024

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
Make the pastry. Place the butter and caster sugar in the bowl of a mixer and mix on low speed until combined. Add the beaten eggs and vanilla and mix on low speed to combine.
Add the cake flour and salt and mix together to form a soft dough. Wrap the dough in plastic cling film and refrigerate for ½ hour.
Divide the dough into 7 parts. Shape 7 balls of dough. On a piece of baking paper place one of the dough balls and sprinkle with flour. Place a second piece of baking paper on top and roll out the dough to a thickness of about 4 cm. Remove the top sheet of baking paper. Mark the dough with a round 18 cm cake tin. Trim away the excess dough. Bake the pastry round still on the baking sheet, in the oven for 10 minutes until golden. Set aside to cool. Repeat the process with the remaining dough balls.
Make the custard. Beat together the flour, sugar, egg yolks, salt and vanilla essence in a mixing bowl.
Bring the milk to boiling point and pour over the egg and flour mixture, stirring all the time. Return the custard to the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring all the time, until thick and cooked. Remove from the heat. Cover the custard with plastic cling film, placing the plastic directly onto the cooked custard. Set aside to cool down completely. The plastic cling film placed right on top of the hot custard prevents a skin forming on top of the custard.
Assemble the cake. Place a pastry round on a flat serving plate. Spread a seventh of the custard over the pastry layer. Top with a second pastry layer and proceed to build 6 layers of pastry and custard, ending with a custard layer. Crumble the 7 th pastry layer and sprinkle over the top custard layer. Lightly press some of the crumbs onto the side of the cake.
Allow the cake to stand for at least 3 hours, before cutting into slices.