Today’s recipe is for a South African favourite, the humble Milk Tart, but I have tweaked the recipe to create Vegan and Gluten Free Milk Tarts.
There are some dishes that trigger your childhood and take you right back to family get-togethers, and for me, that is a milk tart, which was often just served as a dessert. Milk Tart is a quintessential South African dessert and I decided I had to have a go at trying to make a version that I could comfortably eat – with no refined sugar, dairy and a gluten-free base. As I have said before, I am sensitive to dairy and gluten and the combination of these two is something I try an avoid when eating.
The Milk Tart Crust
The base of these Vegan & Gluten Free Milk Tarts is made with a combination of almond flour, coconut oil, vanilla extract, maple syrup and cinnamon.
Almond flour is, of course, gluten-free and very easy to work with, plus it doesn’t have that strange potato taste that many gluten-free flours can have, which is why I decided to use it to make the pie base.
Making the tart crust is very easy – all you need to do is mix the crust ingredients, push into the pie tins and bake. No blind baking or rolling out dough required.
The Milk Tart Filling
The milk tart filling is made with coconut cream (one of my favourite non-dairy alternatives) and the coconutty flavour is ‘levelled out’ by the use of vanilla essence and more maple syrup.
The milk tart filling is thickened up through the use of cornflour, which helps the tart mixture to set once it is poured into the pie base.
I used 4 small tart tins of 12cm each, but you could also use a 20cm tart tin.
Vegan and Gluten Free Milk Tart recipe
Ok, enough explaining and time for the recipe!
Vegan & Gluten Free Milk Tarts
Vegan & Gluten Free Milk Tarts
Equipment
- pie tins (read recipe for size)
- bowl
- wooden spoon
- pot
Ingredients
For the filling
- 1 can chilled coconut cream Pot of Gold variant is quite thick
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp. maple syrup
- 2 1/2 tbsp. corn flour
- Cinnamon for dusting
For the crust
- 2 cups almond flour
- ½ cup coconut oil melted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp. maple syrup
Instructions
Crust:
- Preheat oven to 180°C
- In a large bowl add the crust ingredients together and work together until combined
- Press the mixture into pie dishes or dish; Using your fingertips, continue pressing the dough, making sure to press it all the way up the sides of the pan. Make sure the dough is pressed evenly and is a uniform thickness across the bottom and edges. Prick a few holes gently with a fork
- Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown, remove from heat and let cool.
Filling:
- In a small pot, bring the coconut cream to boil (do not add the coconut water from the bottom of the can) with a pinch of cinnamon, maple syrup and vanilla and stir well.
- In a separate bowl mix, corn flour with a tablespoon of coconut water from the can and slowly add to the coconut milk mixture and allow to thicken, which should start to happen within a few a minute or two. Remove from heat and stir to ensure a smooth consistency.
- Pour into the pie crust, sprinkle with cinnamon and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour before serving.
Check out this Chocolate Tart recipe if you don’t like Milk Tart.
Did you make this recipe?
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