Coconut Custard Tarts With Dark Chocolate

Photo: Noelle Ferrada Kelly

Ingredients

Crust

1 cup whole wheat white flour

cup coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons water

Filling

cup flour

2/3 cup vegan sugar

3 tablespoons agave nectar

2 1/2 teaspoons agar agar flakes

14 ounces can "lite" coconut milk

2 teaspoons coconut extract

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Preparation

Crust

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Spray a 2 dozen mini muffin pan with coconut spray

Or use 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.

Bake for 15 minutes and remove from oven and cool. Prepare filling.

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.

As soon as the mixture thickens (7-10 minutes), remove from heat and add agave nectar and coconut extract.

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.

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About

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.