Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Fruit Tarts


I’ve been working on a Fruit Tart recipe to have with my breakfast for some time. After trying various combinations I’ve found it! My goal was no sugar substitutes—to let the ingredients be tasty enough to stand on their own with perhaps a few spices and that’s it. Below is the “ultimate” recipe and a few of the combinations that I used on the way.
Ingredients
Spray Olive Oil
Crust
1 cup Yellow Corn Grits
½ teaspoon Sea Salt
½ cup Coconut Cream
Fruit Topping
4 ½ - 5 cups fresh Mango, chopped small
1 lb bag of frozen Mixed Berries (Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries & Blackberries)
Optional
Crust
Exchange Coconut Cream for 4 teaspoons Butter (pulsed into dry Corn Grits) and ½ cup Evaporated Milk
Other Fruit Topping Combinations
All of these tasted good! How can you go wrong with fresh fruit. But I thought they would all need at least a little artificial sweetener to satisfy most peoples taste… so I kept looking.
  • 1 Pineapple, 4 Pear, 2 Navel Oranges, ¼ t Cloves, ½ t Nutmeg, 1 t Vanilla flavor, 1 T fresh Lemon Zest, ½ t Orange flavor, Artificial Sweetener (optional)
  • 4 Apple, 3 Pear, 2 Apricot, 2 Banana (mashed), 1 T Apple Pie Spice, 1 ½ t Vanilla flavor, ½ t Maple flavor, Artificial Sweetener (optional)
  • 1 Pineapple, 3 Apple, 2 Mango, 1 c Red Seedless Grapes (cut in half), 1 Banana(mashed), 1 T fresh Lemon Zest, 1 t Vanilla flavor, ½ t Cloves, ½ t Cinnamon, Artificial Sweetener (optional)
  • The first one I tried and probably the second best result: 5 Apples, 4 Pears, 1 Banana(mashed), 1 T Vanilla flavor, ¼ t Maple flavor, 1 T Apple Pie Spice, Artificial Sweetener (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven at 350 degrees F
Crust
Lightly coat 6 tart baking dishes with the Olive Oil spray. Combine Crust ingredients. Divide results evenly and pat into smooth layer on bottom of each tart baking dish.
Filling
Mix all Fruit together. Measure 1 cup into each tart baking dish. Lightly spray top of fruit with Olive Oil Spray. The oil coating helps keep the moisture from escaping and the top fruits from browning to crisps.
Baking
Place all 6 tart baking dishes on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. This is to catch any spillage caused during baking. Place in oven for 40 minutes at 350 degrees F. Remove from oven and allow to cool some before eating.
These store reasonably well for a week or so in the fridge. I use ceramic tart dishes and cover with plastic wrap I stack them in a back corner of the fridge and pull them out one at a time to reheat and consume. see Notes for more comments.
Abstinent Measuring
1 Fruit Tart = 1 Fruit, 1 Starch, 1 teaspoon Oil
Note
  • The smaller you can chop the fruit the better. But don’t get nuts and mince it! lol
  • The size of any particular piece of fruit is variable from season to season and even grocery store to grocery store on the same day. So I aim at 6 or better cups of chopped fruit. Seems I always have some left over. I just save the remainder and have a ready-made mixed fruit salad…more options to choose from when I’m pulling together a quick meal.
  • Unless you are up darn early, you will probably be making these tarts the day (or days) before you plan to eat them for breakfast. I make the tarts in ceramic tart dishes (after trying metal dishes of various kinds.) The first step in my breakfast and morning tea routine is to pop and un-covered tart into the toaster oven—350 degrees for 15 minutes. By the time my eggs, beans and thermos of hot tea is made, the tart has warmed in its ceramic container. It will stay warm in there until I’m ready to eat it. Much better results than microwaving—it heats more evenly. I couldn’t use the microwave anyway when I tried metal dishes or I’d have to dump the tart into a new bowl for nuking… etc, etc. too many steps. Best plan = ceramic dish in toaster oven while I prepare other things J
Serving Suggestions
Fruit tarts are great with
1 cup Yogurt (tryFat-free Chobani brand of greek yogurt if you haven’t already)
Or 1 egg, ½ cup Breakfast Beans ¼ c Salsa
If you are consuming fruit other than at Breakfast, these Fruit Tarts would be a great “dessert.”

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