Rainbow tART

The lovely tART contest Urban Vegan promoted on her blog has ended: the winner was the super lovely Vicki with an adorbale heart shaped tart she baked to celebrate the 14th annivesary of her wedding with... Art! She definitely had a true winner there!

For completeness, this is the recipe of the Rainbow tART we submitted to Urban Vegan: to be honest, I am not even sure this is a tart at all... but it is not even a pie! Let's just say it is a "sweet something"!

Anyhow, this recipe draws from a traditional cake I used to see in my house when I was a child, when we were living in Italy. It is a "crostata", which is not a super typical Italian cake and is mostly diffused in the north. Crostata can be made with jam, and then it is what you would probably call a jam tart, or it can be topped with cream and fresh fruit: the delicious "crostata alla frutta". And this is the route I took. Veganizing everything of course! One difference is that in the real crostata, the crust base (rigorously handmade, as in the Italian tradition: you are not allowed to buy a pie shell. Actually there, they do not even sell them!) is made without yeasts, therefore it is not raised. Instead, since I did not want to make the oven go just for something so small, I baked my base in the microwave, adding some baking powder. But for the rest, we are there.


INGREDIENTS

TART BASE
-1/2 cup flour
-1/2 cup water
-1 dash of salt
-1/3 cup sugar or other sweetener
-1 dash vanilla
-1 teaspoon baking powder

FRUIT
What you like but best if fresh. I used:
-1 peach
-1 kiwi
- cherries
-1/2 apricot

CREAM
Either you use one cup of vegan vanilla custard, or you do your own like this:
-1 cup soy milk
-1/4 cup sugar or other sweetener
-1 tablesppon flour
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

EXTRAS
-agar agar flakes or powder
-1 teaspoon of lemon juice
-1 teaspoon of oil

PREPARATION
-Mix all the ingredients for the base together. Oil a microwavable shallow baking pan and put the mix on it. Bake for about 2 or 3 minutes (it takes this short!) at 750 W. Remote and put on a cooling rack.
-Put in a pot with a heavy bottom the ingredients for the cream without the flour and set to boil. Let boil a couple of minutes and then add in the flour, preferably passing it through a sift to avoid lumps. Lower the boiling and let it become thick. Put immediately on the base, or it will become too thick while cooling. Distribute evenly.
-Slice the fruit: the pieces should be pretty thin or biting through this dessert will not be too easy! Place them in concentric circles on the cream.
-Let the agar dissolve in 3 teaspoons of water, in a pot. Add the lemon and let cook until you have a clear vegan gelatin in your hands. Pour when it is still hot on the fruit, making sure everything is covered. This layer is needed for two reasons: the heat softens the otherwise too cruncy fruit and because it protects the fruit from oxydation, so that you can keep this dessert for a while.

When everything is cool, slice and bite!

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P.S. You did not manage to submit a recipe to Urban but you have got a sure winner in your hands? Check out the next post, for the change to enter a contest and win 10,000 dollars (no, I am not putting these myself!) and promote veganism online!