I've become more mindful of my snacking habits while continuing on this Meatless March journey as the lack of meat makes me take a good look at what other foods I am having. I'm not a huge fan of dairy, but a lot of desserts that I enjoy feature it. It's usually easy to substitute oat or coconut milk in recipes without issue, so I set out to create a light and sweet custard fruit tart that is completely dairy-free but still gave me that perfect pudding texture. The sweetness of the coconut milk is complemented perfectly by the tartness of lemon flavor and fruit toppings. I hope you enjoy this tasty little treat to entertain guests or for yourself.
Coconut Lemon Custard Fruit Tarts (fills 9 mini tarts)
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup coconut milk
3tbs cornstarch
3tbs brown sugar
1 egg yolk
mini pie shells
vanilla extract
lemon extract
coconut extract (optional)
lemon juice or zest
fruit (I used raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, & yellow mango)
Materials:
saucepan
muffin tin
silicon or rubber spatula
whisk
metal bowls- one small, one large
ice
Notes: Choose whatever fruits you think will complement the custard. I chose a mix of tart and sweet fruits to give it balance, but you can lean more towards sweet or tart, or even add white chocolate or nuts. You only need a small amount of each since the tarts are bite-sized.
Recipe
Unroll the pie shells and bake in a muffin tin according to the package (make sure to poke small holes in bottom with a fork or knife) While that's baking, you're gonna work on the custard.
Make a cornstarch slurry with 1/3 cup of the coconut milk. Whisk 3tbs of cornstarch into the milk until it's fully combined.
Heat a pan on low and pour in the remaining cup of coconut milk. Whisk in egg yolk and brown sugar. Once that's warmed a bit, stir in your cornstarch slurry. The key to keeping this as smooth as possible is to whisk or stir with a silicon spatula so that you're combining all ingredients evenly. Mash and whisk any lumps that form.
Add a couple of drops each of vanilla, lemon, and coconut extracts plus a splash of lemon juice or zest. Continue stirring until you reach a thick pudding consistency.
Remove from heat and pour into the smaller metal bowl. Fill the larger metal bowl with ice and carefully place the small bowl of custard on top of the ice (If you don't have two metal bowls, you can still make this work. Essentially, we're creating an ice bath to cool the custard).
6. As the custard cools, continue stirring it to make sure it maintains even consistency. You may choose to place it in a covered bowl in the fridge, and that's fine too, but I do not recommend freezing it.
7. Slice larger fruit into pieces that will fit onto your mini shells.
8. Spoon your cooled custard into pie shells, arrange fruit on top, and you're done! Enjoy as a light breakfast/brunch treat or dessert.
Store tarts in an air-tight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days.