Vanilla Custard Fruit Tart

When I first met my husband, he showed up to a BBQ with a gorgeous gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free fruit tart just for me.

“Nice move, dude,” was my first thought. Followed immediately with “where did you pick that beauty up from?”

To my surprise he had actually made it himself!

Now I know better than to question his baking skills, as he was raised by the queen of baking. Every year on Thanksgiving, he participates in a pie baking contest between him and his two younger brothers. They each have their special pies – apple, pecan and pumpkin. Yes, all three boys are impressive bakers and quite the catch.

Recently I put Adam’s pastry skills to good use and asked him to make a fruit tart for my sister’s baby shower.

True to form, Adam went back to his roots and made a gorgeous fruit tart. When I saw this work of art I just knew we had to share it with our 80:20 community. It is truly to die for!!

Now some of you are looking at the ingredients wondering how is this a splurge for the 80:20–it’s so healthy! To start, it does have eggs. But the other more subtle differentiator is explained by Jules’ favorite mantra about fruit, “eat it alone or leave it alone”. With this tasty dessert that mantra gets tossed aside in the name of 20%. Also, It’s dessert so you might enjoy it after a big meal (and just deal with some gas and bloating!) or get really clever and have dessert as an appetizer. Yum!

Please let me know what else you’d like my handy dandy husband to make over in the dessert department. I know he’d love the challenge.

With fruit and tart love,

Vanilla Custard Fruit Tart

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients:

Crust

• ¾ cup walnuts
• 1 ½ cups almond flour
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 egg
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon vanilla

Custard

• 3 cups berries of choice
• ½ tablespoon gelatin, unflavored
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 cup almond milk
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped and bean reserved
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 cup coconut cream (from a cold can of coconut milk)

Instructions:
In a small bowl, combine gelatin and 1 tablespoon of water to soften.

In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the almond milk, vanilla bean seeds and shell for 2-3 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk the maple syrup and egg yolks. Pour the heated milk/bean mixture into the bowl while whisking.

Return the mixture to the saucepan for 2-3 minutes. Whisk mixture in saucepan. Pour in the soft gelatin. Whisk until gelatin is dissolved. Continue to heat for 5 minutes until custard has thickened. Pour custard into a bowl. Place a piece of plastic wrap on top of the bowl so that skin does not form. Chill in refrigerator for 5 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a food processor with a s-blade, grind walnuts until it becomes a coarse flour. Add almond flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, coconut oil, maple syrup, egg, and vanilla and pulse until a ball of dough forms.

Press the dough into a tart pan with removable base. Using the palms of your hands press the dough to the bottom and sides pan. Cut a circle of parchment paper. Press it onto the bottom of the crust. Fill bottom with pie weights. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the weights and parchment paper. Bake for another 5 minutes. Cool the crust while you make the custard.

Remove custard from the fridge. Add coconut cream from the top of 1 can of coconut milk. Using an electric mixer, whip the custard until thick and creamy.

Spread the custard into the cooled pie crust. Chill the tart for an hour to let the custard set up.

Arrange your berries in a circular pattern. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve.