Last week when I was dreaming up christmasy recipes, I originally wanted to make some sort of fruit tart or pie. I thought about making a healthier version of fruit mince pies, but it seemed to wintery (and we’re currently in summer here) and it seemed a shame to not take advantage of the fresh summer fruit available at the moment. So I dreamed up these fresh berry frangipane custard tarts. I hope you enjoy it!
Recipe: Frangipane Custard Tarts with Fresh Summer Berries
Allergen/recipe info: This recipe contains almonds, dairy milk and eggs. You can substitute the almonds for another kind of nut or exclude them. The dairy milk can also be replaced with an alternative milk such as coconut or almond milk. You can also exclude the eggs and/or gelatin but you’ll need to increase the amount of thickener to help set the custard. The butter can be replaced with coconut butter/oil if need be.
This recipe is gluten free and refined-sugar free!
Makes: 6 tarts (top diameter: 8cm; height: 4cm) or more smaller tarts
To make these you need to first make and bake the tart shells and then make the frangipane custard filling.
You will need:
- tart shells (recipe below)
- frangipane custard
- seasonal fruit (I used blackberries and raspberries)
Tart shells:
Ingredients & Tools:
- 1.5 C. almonds (or to make it easier, almond meal)
- 1.5 C. dates, pitted and finely chopped
- 3-4 Tbs. butter, melted
- 6 patty pans
- A muffin tray
- butter, extra
Directions:
- Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees.
- In a coffee grinder (or a food processor), grind the almonds into a fine meal. Pit and chop the dates into small pieces, add to the coffee grinder (or food processor) and process until the dates have broken down and the almonds and dates have mixed together and are starting to form a dough.
- Melt the butter, add it to the almond-date mixture and process again until the melted butter has been evenly mixed through.
- Divide the mixture into 6 even pieces. Put each patty pan in each hole in the muffin tray. Press the mixture into each patty pans to form the tart shells making sure to not make any gaps and keeping the tart shells at an even thickness. Note:Â Make sure when you press the mixture into the patty pans that there are no gaps or spaces in the mixture. Otherwise the custard could fall through when you pour it in later on.
- Cook on the middle shelf in the oven until lightly browned (around 10-20 minutes). You want to dry the tarts out and lightly brown them but not burn them. You could also use a dehydrator to do this, but that will take around 4-5 hours. Chill. Don’t take the tarts shells out of the oven until they have cooled.
- Brush butter in the insides of the cooled tarts (to help prevent custard from soaking the tarts) and then keep the patty pans in the freezer until the frangipane custard is ready.
Frangipane custard
Ingredients:
- 3 C. full cream milk (best organic/biodynamic  from grass-fed cows)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1/2 vanilla bean, spilt & scraped
- 2 Tbs. whole almonds
- 3/4 C. coconut sugar
- 1 Tbs. double cream
- 4 pastured egg yolks (you can freeze the egg whites in a zip-lock bag for another recipe)
- 1 tbs. corn flour or natural thickener such as agar-agar or kuzu
- 1 sheet of gelatin
Directions:
- Soak the gelatin sheet in cold water.
- In a double boiler heat the milk, vanilla bean or extract, almonds and coconut sugar. Heat and stir this mixture until the almonds have softened, the sugar has melted and the milk has taken on a vanilla flavour (do not boil). Discard the vanilla bean and then blend this almond-milk mixture until smooth.
- In a separate large bowl,  beat the egg yolks with a whisk until thick. Add the double cream, thickener of your choice and whisk again.
- Now it’s time to temper the eggs. While whisking the eggs, add a tablespoon of the almond-milk mixture until all the milk mixture has been incorporated into the egg yolks making sure to be whisking as you add the milk in (other wise the eggs can curdle).
- Pour this mixture back into the double boiler on low-medium heat and keep whisking until the mixture thickens.
- When you feel it’s thick enough (you want it to be the thickness of double cream) add the gelatine sheet (discarding the soak water) (if we added the gelatin earlier it can become ineffective) and continue until the sheet has dissolved. Leave to cool and then put the tarts together (as below)
Putting it all together:
Take out your chilled tarts from the freezer. Spoon the custard mixture into the tarts until they are full and all the tarts contain the custard. Put the tarts in the fridge until they set (a few hours or overnight). When you’re ready to serve, place the fresh berries on top of the tarts.
Enjoy & Happy Holidays Everyone!
For more dessert recipes have a look at the recipe index.
© Copyright: 2011 Michelle Robson-Garth. Please ask permission first when using any text or images on healthfoodlover.com . See the disclaimer here. Have a look at the recipe index for more health food lovin’ recipes. Join the Facebook page & follow Health Food Lover on twitter.
Michelle
Health Food Lover is Michelle Robson-Garth. Michelle is a degree-qualified Naturopath (BHSc) and Massage Therapist. She is also a passionate writer, recipe-creator and all-round foodie from Melbourne, Australia. © Copyright: 2009-2012 Michelle Robson-Garth. Please ask permission first when using any text or images on healthfoodlover.com. Read the disclaimer here. Have a look at the recipe index for more health food lovin’ recipes. Join the Facebook page & follow Health Food Lover on twitter.
