Vegan Chinese Coconut Tarts

Coconut tarts were a delicious treat for me in HK, my favourite part was the kitsch glace cherry in the middle, which I used to save till last as a little coconut island with a cherry on top.

The tart should have a light-ish fluffy filling, with a slightly chewy outer, and crisp "short" pastry. Not a diet food, probably best for parties as you can share them out and don't end up eating them all!

I'm not sure how this freezes, I imagine probably quite well as it is quite dense and not liquid.

This is an ongoing experiment, I may end up substituting the ground almond with coconut flour, or perhaps more dessicated coconut. In the meantime, this is what I have come up with. :)

This makes 24-26 tarts

Ingredients:

Pastry: 300g plain flour
250g margarine (I prefer vitalite in the UK as it has a more buttery taste)

Filling:
115g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsp No-Egg egg replacer, or equivalent*
1/4 tsp salt

50ml oil
400ml coconut milk(1 regular can)
150g sugar
1 tsp vanilla
200g dessicated coconut

12 glace cherries, cut in half.

*I have seen coconut tart recipes that require custard powder, which mainly consists of corn starch. Egg replacer also consists of different starches, so perhaps a future experiment would be to replace the egg replacer with custard powder. 

Preheat the oven to 180C.

For the pastry - In a large mixing bowl mix the flour and margarine using a spatula - the less you handle the pastry the better. Break up the fat and press it into the flour against the side of the bowl until it starts to resemble large bread crumbs. Usually this is the point where you would add water/milk, but I've found that margarine has a large water content and that it usually will at this point form together into a large ball when pressed with your hands. Margarines differ however and if yours doesn't want to clump, then add cold water/soy milk a teaspoon at a time until it comes together. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. In the meantime prepare the filling.

Mix the dry ingredients apart from sugar in a large mixing bowl. In a measuring jug measure out the oil, then add the sugar, vanilla. You can add half the coconut milk and mix until well combined. Pour into the mixing bowl, then add the remaining coconut milk. Mix well. Fold in the dessicated coconut.

Get the pastry out the fridge and divide into two. Roll out the pastry on a floured board until about 0.5cm thick. Using a pastry cutter that fits with your cupcake tin, cut out the shapes. I tended to roll the cut out round shape to make it larger and slightly thinner. The pastry should come up the sides of the tin, rising up about 2-3 cm high at the sides.

Fill your cases with the coconut mixture using a large spoon**. Place the glace cherries on top.

**I put the filling in raw pastry cases and baked together, which took ages (nearly 40-50 minutes), and had to cover the tops of the tarts with foil as the coconut browned before the pastry was fully cooked. Next time I may blind-bake the pastry before adding the coconut filling.

Bake until the coconut is browned - it is important to flip out a tart and  ensure the pastry is cooked through at the bottom. If you tap it it should make a crisp sound, or cut through and it should have no translucent uncooked looking pastry.

Tip: If the coconut has browned but the pastry isn't fully cooked, try covering tightly with foil so that it doesn't brown any further. I've also taken the tarts out, put the tarts on a rack, then back on a baking tray, then covered with foil, so that the pastry bottoms were exposed to the heat and the coconut was protected. All of this seems a bit of a hassle on reflection, so I would suggest blind baking the pastry cases first!!!