Almond Coconut Fruit Tart (gluten-free)

Posted in Pies and mini Tarts by a little Swiss, a little Canadian

This year we have some special celebrations in our family, we’ll be celebrating 10, 20, 40, 50, 60, 70th birthday as well as some anniversaries. First up was my husbands 50th birthday!

Because of some digestion problems he did not ask for a cake, that is why I came up with this gluten free almond fruit tart. Pretty easy to make and tastes delicious.

Almond Coconut Fruit Tart

Almond Crust:

3 1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch sea salt
1/2 cup butter melted
2 eggs

-Whisk together butter and eggs, add coconut sugar, salt and cinnamon. Stir in ground almonds until well combined. This will be a sticky dough.

-Line the bottom of a 28 cm tart form with parchment paper, grease the sides. Fill in almond dough, works best using your hands, press down evenly. Bake in preheated 350F oven for 30 minutes. Let cool completely.

Coconut Custard

500 ml coconut milk
4 tbsp corn starch
1/3 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

-In a medium saucepan whisk together all ingredients, except vanilla. Let come to a boil, while whisking, then reduce heat and let cook until thickened. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and let cool a few minutes then fill in a bowl and let cool completely in the fridge.

Assembly:

-Place almond crust on a serving plate or cake stand. Fill with custard then decorate with your fruit of choice. I used about 5 kiwis, cut in slices, 1 orange and some grape halves.

-Store in refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Ursula

30Jun2017

Canada Day Baked Maple Custard Doughnuts

Posted in cake by a little Swiss, a little Canadian

Happy 150th Birthday Canada, July 1st 2017!!

I was thinking of what kind of desserts are very typical to Canada. Each province and territory has its own specialty. From Nanaimo Bars, Saskatoon Berry Pie, Butter Tarts, Apple Pie, Tarte au Sucre, Wild Blueberry Pie, Beaver Tail (like Elephant ears), and many more. Anything with Maple Syrup comes into my mind of course!! A very popular Canadian Coffee Chain has these Maple Boston Doughnuts and these the are my favorites. I have not had a doughnut in years…really. But I’ve made baked jelly donuts or as we call them in Switzerland, “Berliner”. Of course a doughnut should be fried, but these taste really soft and yummy, are easy to make and are a little on the lighter side that way;)

My son was helping me forming the doughnuts. He is slowly getting better, but he is starting to get a bit bored, so this was something for him to do. You can form the donuts as big as you like, from doughnut hole shape to regular doughnut size. The dough, custard and glaze are sweetened/made with maple syrup to really get into the maple goodness, or Canadian spirit:)

Baked Maple Custard Doughnuts

Coconut Custard

Find the recipe here: Coconut Custard mini tarts with mixed berries

-You can use any non-dairy or regular milk for this recipe

-Sweetened with 1/3 cup of maple syrup

-Do not forget to make the custard ahead. It needs time to cool and set.

Dough

200 g unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp dry instant yeast
50 g butter
125 ml milk

-40 g butter melted

-Mix together flour, salt and yeast, add maple syrup.

-In a small saucepan mix together milk and butter and over low heat let the butter melt. Add to dry ingredients and mix well, then start kneading dough until forms a soft ball. Place back in bowl and cover with plastic wrap, let rise until doubled in size, about an hour.

-Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

-Form dough into desired doughnut shapes, place onto sheet, cover and let rise again for about 30-45 min.

-Brush doughnuts with melted butter. Bake in preheated 350/180C oven for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Maple glaze

1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp butter

-In a small saucepan mix maple syrup and butter together, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and let cook until thickens while stirring constantly.

-Dip or brush warm donuts with the maple glaze (as much as you like)

-I filled the warm doughnuts first, then glazed. Works well with a small round pastry tip.

-These taste best when freshly made!

Enjoy!

Happy Canada Day!

Ursula

Follow me on Instagram: @littleswisslittlecanadian

3Jun2017

Strawberry-Coconut-Cake

Posted in cake by a little Swiss, a little Canadian

June is usually the month when we get the first Ontario Strawberries, depending on where you live of course. We also have some plants in our garden, which are full of flowers this year, and I’ve seen some green unripe berries. I can’t wait to taste the first berries:)

June is also the month of my birthday:) June 2nd. I’ve made this amazing tasting strawberry coconut cake. Imagine coconut cake with a creamy mascarpone filling and strawberry puree! It is perfect for the month of strawberries;) or as other summer fruits come along I am sure it would taste great with cherries or other berries and so on.

Our strawberry plants.

Strawberry-Coconut-Cake/Erdbeer-Kokos-Torte

Coconut cake:

3 eggs
pinch of salt
100 coconut sugar, or sugar
75 g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
40 g coconut, shredded unsweetened
30 g butter, melted

-Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Line the bottom of a 22 cm round Springform baking pan with parchment paper.

-Mix eggs, salt and coconut sugar well for a few minutes. Mix flour and baking powder and sift it into the bowl with the egg mixture. Gently mix. Add coconut and melted butter only until combined. Pour into prepared baking pan. Bake for about 30 minutes or until tester inserted in middle comes out clean. Let cool completely.

Strawberry layer:

1/2 organic lemon, zest and juice
250 g strawberries
2 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp water

-Puree strawberries, lemon juice and zest. Mix together well cornstarch and water, add to strawberry puree. Over medium heat bring puree to a boil, and let cook for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool down, then put in fridge.

Coconut Mascarpone Cream:

500 g mascarpone
150 ml coconut cream
100 ml honey, plus 2 tbsp
350 ml whipped cream
1 packet vanilla sugar
2 pouches unflavored gelatin
75 g coconut, shredded unsweetened

-Mix together mascarpone, coconut cream and honey, add shredded coconut. Prepare gelatin as directed. Add a few tablespoons of the mascarpone cream to the gelatin and mix, then add it to the rest of the cream. Whip whipping cream until stiff, add 2 tbsp honey or sugar, whisk again then fold gently under the mascarpone cream. Cover and leave in fridge until cake has completely cooled down.

Extras and Decoration:

Coconut liquor, Rum, Kirsch Schnapps…(optional, leave out if you have little kids eating)
100 ml whipped cream
250 g strawberries

-Place cake on a plate or cake stand. Drizzle some liquor on top. Place and close cake ring back around the cake. Spoon some of the strawberry puree into middle leaving a 2 cm space around. Cover with 2/3 of the mascarpone cream, spread evenly. Mix rest of puree with remaining mascarpone cream. Spoon onto cake then gently swirl, not going to deep until you have a desired look, kind of like a marbled look. Let set in refrigerator overnight.

-Carefully remove cake ring. I used a hot knive to go around first, to loosen it a bit.

-Decorate with whipped cream, strawberries and some shredded coconut if desired, to your liking:)

–you can use regular sugar to replace the coconut sugar and the honey–

Recipe by Ursula, A little Swiss a little Canadian