Plantain Tart
As summer approaches, sweet plantains have become plentiful in most grocery stores, which gave me the idea for a plantain tart. Inspiration for the crust came from a jam tart recipe I saw on Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street website. This crust has couple of not so common ingredients like almond flour and unsweetened dried coconut. The smooth and velvety filling is made of steamed fully ripe plantains, coconut milk, egg and brown sugar. Look for AROY-D brand coconut milk in the stores. It is known for its “clean, balanced flavor that taste strongly of coconut” according to America’s Test Kitchen website. The tart was topped with lightly toasted sweetened coconut flakes. Toasting ensures a uniformly light brown topping. This tart is best eaten warm or at room temperature.
You can make the crust and filling a day or two earlier and keep them separately in refrigerator until ready to assemble. Bake the crust as directed, straight out of the refrigerator. Pre-heat the filling in microwave oven until warm to the touch before pouring onto the baked crust.
Yields 16 pieces
Time: 1.5 hours
Hi everyone, my name is Aswathy. Welcome to Aswathy's Kitchen where you can find sweet and savory recipes to enjoy!
All of the photography is done by my husband, Kuruvilla and my daughter, Tia. Taste testing is provided by my close friends and family. Thanks for being part of this journey and all your support.
Ingredients and Instructions
Topping
-
Sweetened coconut flakes 50g
Toast coconut flakes in a pan on medium heat until it turns light golden color. Set it aside.
Crust
- Unsweetened coconut 40g
- White sugar 50g
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix egg and vanilla together and keep aside. Process coconut flakes and sugar in a food processor until coconut become the same size as sugar crystals, about two minutes.
- Almond flour 50g
- All purpose flour 110g
- Baking powder 0.25tsp
- Salt 0.25 tsp
- Butter, half inch cubes 3 tbs
- Egg, large 1
- Vanilla 1tsp
Add almond flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, salt and pulse to combine, about 5 pulses. Scatter butter to the flour mixture and pulse to cut butter into flour, 10 to 12 pulses. At this point, the mixture will resemble coarse meal. With the machine running, drizzle egg and vanilla mixture and process until the dough starts to come together. No need to wash the food processor bowl before using it for preparing the filling.
Transfer the dough to a tart pan with removable bottom. Press the dough into an even layer over the tart pan bottom and the edge.
Bake the crust until golden brown around the edges, about 15 minutes. Take the pan out and cool for 10 minutes. Keep the oven on.
Filling
- Ripe plantains 450g
Depending on the size, you will need one and a half to two fully ripe plantains. Cook plantains in a steamer until they become soft to the touch or when you poke with a fork it goes through without any resistance, about 15 minutes. Be very careful when you open the steamer. When plantains are cool enough to handle, peel the skin and cut them in half, lengthwise. Remove the black line of seeds from middle. Transfer plantains to the food processor bowl and process until smooth.
- Egg, gently whipped, large 1
- Brown sugar 90g
- Coconut milk 0.75cup
- Cardamom powder 0.5tsp
- Salt 0.25 tsp
Add all these ingredients to the plantain puree in the food processor and mix until fully combined. Mixture should be velvety to the touch and look shiny.
Transfer the puree onto the baked crust that has been cooling and gently spread in an even layer. Sprinkle toasted coconut flakes evenly on top of the filling.
Bake for about 40 minutes, until the tart becomes firm to the touch. Enjoy!
