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Aug
14
Vegan Peach tartlets with Almonds and Pineapple Sage
August 14, 2008 |
Our friend Sayed is a passionate gardener. On a small plot of land, lined all along the fence, he has 27 trees, most of them laden with the most gorgeous fruit - pears, walnuts, peaches, plums, apricots, apples. Plus grape vines, veggies, herbs, flowers, the whole works. The size of your backyard, he proves, is no constraint, nor is the desert climate.
He sent us a whole lot of organic peaches from his tree. We ate some and thought of ways to cook the others. Most of the recipes online lead to peach jam or some type of pie/tart. I’ve often wondered what the difference was between a pie and a tart. Both the crusts taste equally yucky to me. I found out that there is none. A tart is made in a shallow pan with straighter sides, that’s all.
The first law of dietetics seems to be: if it tastes good, it’s bad for you. ~ Issac Asimov
In my personal and idiosyncratic opinion, there is one exception. A pie crust is something that tastes bad, and is bad for you.
It’s not the crust itself I dislike, but the greasy mouthfeel. I adore crusty pizzas and breads. And phyllo casings make me erupt into romantic verse.
What I cannot appreciate are crusts in pies, stuffed savories, tarts, etc. Even as a five-year old when I had no concept of nutrition, I would spend a good amount of time removing every bit of casing from the samosa, and eat only the insides. The flavour of fried flour encasing something puts me off. I dislike shortbreads and puff pastry for the same reason.
At work, my colleagues would circle around me at tea time. They would trade the filling of what we were all eating for the crust that I was about to throw away. I remember Thanksgiving dinner at a friend’s place where I was totally focused on taking every shred of crust off the slice of pumpkin pie and looked up to see a few people gazing in bewilderment.
There’s just one crusty thing that I think is worth every buttery bite - ma’moul. Those are the date or nut-filled shortbread pastries from Lebanon and I can’t have enough of them. J likes crusts, but not enough to want to make them.
Then, last week, as the peaches sat on the counter begging to be used up, I thought, what the heck, there’s got to be one pie recipe that doesn’t start with three sticks of butter and 2 cups of sugar. The vegan ones seemed to simply replace the butter with margarine or coconut oil. There were a couple of lower fat ones that used cottage cheese, but I didn’t have any. Then I spotted the almond butter in my fridge, and created my own.
VEGAN ALMOND PIE CRUST
(Makes 8 to 9 tartlets or 1 regular tart)
1.25 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose flour)
2 tbsps cornstarch or arrowroot powder
2 tbsps fine whole grain cornmeal (or semolina or rice flour)
1/3 cup almond butter (make your own)
2 tbsps vegetable/nut/coconut oil
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp organic cane sugar
around six tbsps very cold water
Add everything and 3 tbsp of the water and mix together until it starts to come together. Then add the rest of the water a tablespoon at a time until you get a stiff dough that can be rolled. Refrigerate in a tightly covered container for at least an hour before using.
Roll out into discs (not too thin), press gently into greased tart pans and remove the excess dough from the edges.
Bake for 5 minutes at 350F, before adding filling.
After making this dish, I found more whole grain, lowfat crust ideas at
Ellen’s Kitchen
Fatfree Vegan’s Oatmeal Crust
To flavour the filling, I used pineapple sage (salvia elegans). Its leaves have an incredibly fruity aroma that evokes pineapple and honeydew melon. Towards the end of summer it gets red blooms that attract hummingbirds for their nectar.
Of the 15 or so varieties of herbs in my garden, it’s my absolute favourite. We use it to flavour a host of things from lemonade to pizza.
Allspice
We have a ridiculous number of spices in our pantry - over 60 at last count. I decided to reach right to the back corner for those that I rarely ever use ‘cos I can’t see them. They happened to be allspice and mace (which is part of the nutmeg plant).
(For 8 tartlets)
About 4 cups thinly sliced peaches
1.5 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsps raw cane sugar (or more)
1.5 tbsp cornstarch
a couple of drops of almond extract
1/4 tsp finely crushed allspice
1/4 tsp ground mace (or nutmeg)
1 tbsp finely chopped herbs (we used pineapple sage)
2 tbsps apricot jam or orange marmalade
herbs and almonds to garnish
1. Raise the oven temperature to 375F.
2. Mix the sugar, cornstarch and spices. Add the peaches and toss them in the mixture.
3. Add the lemon juice and zest, almond extract and herbs and toss again.
4. Arrange the peach slices in the tart shells as shown in the picture.
5. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Cover loosely with foil (shiny side up) with a couple of slits for the steam to escape if the crust starts to darken too much.
6. When the dough pulls off the sides of the pan and the juices in the tart get all bubbly, it is done.
7. Melt the jam in the microwave for 15 seconds. Brush it on the hot tartlets. Let them cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pans.
8. Garnish and serve.
They refrigerate well in an airtight container. Before serving, bring to room temperature or reheat in the microwave for 15 seconds.
Verdict: Quite good. Excellent for breakfast or to take to a picnic. Not too sweet. The crust was sturdy, not soggy at all. I liked eating it, but the filling is good all on its own. Like ghugra, where we didn’t mind eating the crust, but I really don’t see the point of having it in the first place. If it’s simply a utensil to transport the filling to your mouth, well, a fork works very well, thank you.
With peaches from Sayed’s garden and pineapple sage from our own, this dish goes to finnyknits for Grow Your Own.
Allspice is our pick for Sunita’s Think Spice event.
And to commemorate India’s Independence Day, the colours of the Indian flag for Pooja’s Orange, Green and White event @ My Creative Ideas.
- bee
allspice, Almond, Cornmeal, GARDENING, Lemon/Lime, mace, nut-butter, Peach, pie crust, pineapple-sage, Sage, vegan recipes, vegetarian recipes, Wheat
An elegant healthy dessert
They re too pretty to be eaten! Drooling…
What a wonderful recipe and pictures. That crust sounds delightful and a wonderful partner to the fruity filling.
What lovely little tarts! I agree, the filling would be fabulous all by itself!
Thats a neat idea. With so many nut butter, variations are endless. I use nut oils with a tbsp of melted butter. Works fine. Using shredded coconut (with appropriate filling) is also another option. The fat in the coconut holds the dough together, with some help from added oil, of course.
What pretty looking tarts! And healthful too.
GROOVY
peach & almonds make such a perfect match! those fresh peaches mk such a lovely lassi 
Nifty idea using almond butter. It must have complimented the peaches so well!
I am totally with you on eating the filling and never the soggy crust. Another reason I prefer apple pizza over the pie.
Lovely pictures
-A
Pretty Tarts..Happy Independence Day!
Good idea using the almond butter, although I love regular buttery crusts too. The whole combination looks really decadent.
Such a creative idea of making tartlets with Bee . I love it soooo much. it looks so yummy !!! I can see my pantry filled with jars of spice her and there , gotta count it now
.
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thanks for this nice entry
Happy Independence day to both of you .
Vegan Peach Tarlet looks so delicious!
Happy Independence day!
Beautifull looking tart with awesome flavours.The pictures are lovely.Nice to know about pineapple saga.
interesting combination of flavours….the tarts look great
Thank you for those gorgeous tartlets
In one restaurant here, when I ordered chicken pot pie, the pie was delivered separately and the chicken separately!!! If you were non-veggie and you’d ordered it, you’d have appreciated it, Bee!
Nice entry, really looks ‘independent’.
You make me shake my head in dismay with your talk of pastries in such a way. [sighs] But I like what you’ve done here! Actually, the cooks on my German side have often added ground nuts to such things (pastries, streusel, crisps), but of course they didn’t cut back on the butter- so I bet this is both heavenly and lighter. Except for one thing: though you intrigue me with your use of pineapple sage, I absolutely cannot stand allspice berries in sweets! Cinnamon is better.
allspice has a hint of cinnamon, ya know!!
Nice one.
I appreciate that you really made it vegan. I am tired of recipes that have loads of butter or ghee and calling it vegan.
You guys have the most amazing herbs in your garden! I wish I could get a whiff of that sage!
The tarts look absolutely perfect… You get your shells even thinner than I do!
wow, that sure sounds wholesome guys! I love the crust:)
Happy Independence Day to you too!
These look delicious! My daughter doesn’t like pie crust, either. In the long run, I think that’s a good thing because the crust is the most unhealthy part of any pie.
And thanks for the link!
Just gorgeous! even i hate pie /tart curst….ur site and recipes are so so inspiring to me…..
by the way i made the mango thoku and oatmeal buns ..both turned out very well..thank you for the recipes…
Your tarts look beautiful and the tart shell with nut butter is really great idea.
I love oie crust but as Asimov says, its definitely not good for me!
I often use an olive oil pie crust which is quite nice.
hmm me love pie crusts…. this one looks yummy too
those look so pretty. really nice pics.
you have a surprise waiting for u at my blog. do check it out.
i forgot to send u the link, here it is:
http://myluvforfood.blogspot.com/2008/08/tortellini-pasta-soup-with-blue-cheese.html
Love the idea of these tarts for breakfast! It’s just starting to be peach season here, and for a few weeks, we put peaches in just about everything — salsa, salad, crumbles. I’ll try these little tarts, too.
Beautiful pictures! I have been thinking of making tartletts since so long now, I guess yours are tempting me to make some.
Well, I don’t like eating pie crust alone, but I don’t like eating the filling alone either. The crust balances out the flavours for me. Just like it is with daal and rice/roti. I don’t like eating either alone.
Mouthwatering dessert Bee.. loved the first pic
Gorgeous tartlets, meeee wants one
Beautiful looking tarts. They look professional. I am always interested in vegan alternatives for my daughter who is sqeamish around most meats and sensitive to dairy.
Thanks!
This sounds good! I am going to try it with apples as peaches are dwindling now:)
Ooh..these are so pretty. And no dairy butter..gotta try this one.
lucky you having too many peaches - adorable tarts and a great solution to your dislike of buttery pastry - it looks like my sort of pastry and I have some almond butter - now I just wish I had some lovely stone fruit but will be bookmarking this recipe
Awesome! I crave fresh peaches when they are in season! Especially the white flesh ones they have out now - I find they have a more flowery taste. Just beautiful.
As for the difference between pie and tart crust, I was taught this: pie crust is supposed to be flaky. Tart crust is supposed to be more like a cookie, and definitely not flaky. Tart crust is exceedingly more simple to prepare, therefore, since pie crust can be finicky at times and difficult to keep flaky instead of soggy. Tart crust is pressed into the pan, pie crust is rolled out and cut to shape.
I prefer tart crust.
Sometimes when making a graham crust, I replace half the butter with peanut butter (natural peanut butter). It doesn’t make it any more fat-free, but it sure does make it tasty! 
I tried out your pie crust today and it is the only one I have eaten that doesn’t taste like cardboard. Mucho thanks for the fantastic recipe!
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“1 tbsp organic cane sugar”
Could I do a straight swop here with Maple Syrup (or Agave)? Or would that alter the consistancy of the dough too much?
Thank you in advance.
sure, you can.
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