“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.” – Anonymous
As always with my creations, I was struggling to get the right name for these babies too! They look so cute …what should I call them? Cutie Pie tarts? or So-good-for-you tarts? Well, what’s in a name right? Whatever you decide to call them – these are amazing! Thick custard in the middle, pastry crust on the outside and fruit on the top! What’s not to love? Love is the reason I decided to try making another dessert recipe for the second time in a week! After all it is Valentine’s week, right? Gawking at all those delicious desserts on Pinterest and Foodgawker, I was just too tempted to make one more dessert. Btw, in case you missed, I made this delicious Strawberry Banana Cake for our anniversary which I posted a few days ago, which is so, so delicious!
Getting back to these mini tarts, the real inspiration for these struck a couple weeks ago when a friend whom we had invited over for dinner brought these mini cheese tarts for us from Whole Foods. Omg, one look at those cute tiny tarts in a nicely packed tray made me just fall in love. Although I couldn’t eat or taste those, just looking at them was enough inspiration! Right from that moment, I wanted to try and make something similar that would be Paleo/AIP compliant. So I kept thinking about the ingredients I would use for the crust and how I could try to make a coconut custard etc etc.
And today finally was the day for my kitchen experiments! For the crust, I decided to use my trusted crust recipe that I have used before for baking mini apple pies and for mini blueberry pies. I decided to use the same crust recipe except decided to replace coconut oil with palm shortening for a more flaky kind of crust. For the custard, I did have to do a couple different trys until I got the perfect consistency that I was looking for. In the end I was more than happy with my results! The coconut custard was so delicious – it is going to be my new fave instant dessert recipe!
After arranging the tarts, pouring the custard into them and topping with the fruit slices, I felt such a sense of accomplishment and was mighty proud of myself! 🙂
Happy Valentine’s Day folks! May you have a wonderful time with your loved one/s! Sharing these mini treats (I love that because that helps you to not go crazy on the sugar even if its unrefined!) at the Paleo/AIP Recipe Roundtable hosted by Phoenix Helix.
Mini Coconut Custard Tarts || Mini Custard Fruit Tarts (Vegan, Paleo, AIP)
Notes
Instead of palm shortening, you can use coconut oil for the crust but the texture of the crust might be a little soft.
When using canned coconut milk, make sure to shake can several times before opening to get coconut milk of uniform consistency. This is because coconut milk usually separates upon storing and you will only see the thick cream on top and water in the bottom. For this recipe, you need all mixed coconut milk and not coconut cream. You can additional coconut cream towards the end to make it richer.
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- 1/3 cup arrowroot flour
- 1/4 cup melted palm shortening(see notes on substitutions)
- pinch salt
- 2-3 tbsp cold water
For the coconut custard:
- 3/4 cup coconut milk (see notes)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- pinch salt
- 1 tbsp arrowroot flour plus 1 tsp tapioca flour
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp coconut cream (optional)
For the toppings:
- strawberries, fresh or frozen, sliced
- blueberries, fresh or frozen
- mangoes, chopped
Instructions
For the crust:
- Mix all crust ingredients except water in a large mixing bowl. Slowly add water 1 tbsp at a time and using your hands mix to form a dough. Continue to add water until a dough is formed. (Dough will be slightly crumbly)
- Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Grease 5 muffin pans with coconut oil first and then line them with parchment paper.
- Divide crus dough into 5 portions and take each portion and press into each muffin pan to cover the base and the sides of the pan. You will need to press using your fingers for it to spread around.
- Prick the crust in each pan with a fork and place in the oven to bake for 15-16 mins until base is golden brown. Take the muffin tray out of the oven. Let cool.
For the coconut custard:
- In a small cooking pot, add the coconut milk, salt and maple syrup and heat on low for about 2 mins.
- In small bowl or cup, mix the arrowroot flour and tapioca flour with the water to form a slurry.
- Add this slurry slowly to the hot coconut milk mixture, stirring continuously while it thickens (It will take 1-2 mins to thicken). Turn heat off and add vanilla extract and stir. If adding coconut cream, add it at this time and stir quickly to blend well.
For assembling tarts:
- Pour warm custard mixture into the baked tarts (otherwise they will thicken too much after cooling). Top with sliced fruits of your choice.
- You can enjoy these warm or keep in refrigerator for an hour and serve.
- ⅓ cup coconut flour
- ⅓ cup arrowroot flour
- ¼ cup melted palm shortening (see notes on substitutions)
- pinch salt
- 2-3 tbsp cold water
- ¾ cup coconut milk (see notes)
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- pinch salt
- 1 tbsp arrowroot flour plus 1 tsp tapioca flour
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp coconut cream (optional)
- strawberries, fresh or frozen, sliced
- blueberries, fresh or frozen
- mangoes, chopped
- Mix all crust ingredients except water in a large mixing bowl. Slowly add water 1 tbsp at a time and using your hands mix to form a dough. Continue to add water until a dough is formed. (Dough will be slightly crumbly)
- Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Grease 5 muffin pans with coconut oil first and then line them with parchment paper.
- Divide crus dough into 5 portions and take each portion and press into each muffin pan to cover the base and the sides of the pan. You will need to press using your fingers for it to spread around.
- Prick the crust in each pan with a fork and place in the oven to bake for 15-16 mins until base is golden brown. Take the muffin tray out of the oven. Let cool.
- In a small cooking pot, add the coconut milk, salt and maple syrup and heat on low for about 2 mins.
- In small bowl or cup, mix the arrowroot flour and tapioca flour with the water to form a slurry.
- Add this slurry slowly to the hot coconut milk mixture, stirring continuously while it thickens (It will take 1-2 mins to thicken). Turn heat off and add vanilla extract and stir. If adding coconut cream, add it at this time and stir quickly to blend well.
- Pour warm custard mixture into the baked tarts (otherwise they will thicken too much after cooling). Top with sliced fruits of your choice.
- You can enjoy these warm or keep in refrigerator for an hour and serve.
When using canned coconut milk, make sure to shake can several times before opening to get coconut milk of uniform consistency. This is because coconut milk usually separates upon storing and you will only see the thick cream on top and water in the bottom. For this recipe, you need all mixed coconut milk and not coconut cream. You can additional coconut cream towards the end to make it richer.
