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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I pray that everyone had a great Easter! It is nice to have had a nice weekend full of rest and reflection. We were not able to worship with our church family since Ryan played the organ for an Episcopal church. After our service, we enjoyed the sunny day on our way home and picked up the vegan quiche and dessert I made for our Easter lunch with the graduate students. From what I heard, it was the 2nd annual lunch and it had been deemed it would be at Carolyn’s house from then on. She had a great place and we had 24 people!
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Her place was decorated with Easter decorations and tons of different flowers, like tulips, peonies, and orchids. It was spring inside her home!
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
We all sat down for a great potluck provided by all our friends, but you know what that meant; always bring something that a vegan can consume, is my motto! I decided to bring my Sun-Dried and Leek Quiche that I prepared several weeks ago and then last minute, I was inspired to make a dessert. Two days ago I read a nice post by one of my Canadian bloggers showing a great recipe for a coconut banana pie that was completely vegan. Even though I did not have all the ingredients I was sure I could make up a recipe similar to Kirsten’s pie recipe.Since I was also going to a party, I also wanted to make the dessert appealing and creative so I decided to make mini pies. I was perusing TJMaxx and I found a great mini muffin pan that I also knew I could use for mini quiches or mini pies. I was sold. I got home and started on the recipe immediately. When I finished, I was VERY happy with the results. It was a pretty quick dessert to prepare and I noticed it could become a nice gourmet dessert recipe.
What makes this dessert vegan? No dairy products and no eggs involved! The custard part was made using agar agar flakes, which is a vegetable gelatin derived from wild sea vegetables, like red algae. How bizarre but yet so amazing! Alicia Silverstone incorporates this in some of her recipes in The Kind Diet by making fruity kanten, which is a jello-like dish. I had been wanting to use my little packet of agar agar for a while that I was thankful for Kirsten posting such a great recipe. Make sure to visit her site for some other great recipes!
As far as the chocolate part of the dessert, I decided to use a bar of 85% Dark Chocolate that Alter Eco packed in my goodie box.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
It was packaged in 1-inch pieces which I cut in half and decorated on each mini pie. It made for a delicious combination. This is a keeper folks!
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Coconut Custard Tarts with Dark Chocolate
2 dozen mini pies or one 9-inch pie
Crust
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Bake for 15 minutes and remove from oven and cool. Prepare filling.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Filling
In a medium sauce pan, add the flour, vegan sugar and agar flakes to pan. Whisk until combined. Add coconut milk and place on medium heat and continue whisking until mixture thickens. There should not be any clumps but the mixture will continue to be smooth while whisking.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
As soon as the mixture thickens (7-10 minutes), remove from heat and add agave nectar and coconut extract.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Place filling in a glass bowl and chill over ice water for 10-15 minutes. Remove from water and add shredded coconut.
Place filling in a sandwich bag and cut the edge of the bag with scissors, making a medium opening. Pipe filling into each mini pie crust. Cut a half inch piece of your favorite chocolate and place in the middle of each pie.
Can be refrigerated before serving and can also be prepared the night before.
Coconut Custard Tarts With Dark Chocolate
Filling
1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup vegan sugar
3 Tbsp agave nectar
2 1/2 tsp agar agar flakes
1 14-ounce can “lite” coconut milk
2 tsp coconut extract
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconutCrust
1 cup whole wheat white flour
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/2 tsp salt
6- 8 Tbsp waterPreheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 2 dozen mini muffin pan with coconut spray or a 9-inch pie plate.
In a small bowl, combine salt and flour. With a pastry cutter, blend in coconut oil with flour until it resembles coarse sand. Add the water a little at a time and blend and for in a ball. (Do not overwork)
Split dough using a tablespoon of dough for each mini muffin section until evenly distributed.
