Dessert! I don’t make much of that here, except for when I’m following a recipe for a cookbook review or trying something like this. So when I asked Jeff what he wanted me to make for Valentine’s Day and he said a lemon tart instead of something savory, I had to switch gears and step out of my comfort zone.
Which I was fine with. I just never quite get dessert right the first (or second) try, so I knew we were going to be eating a few batches of test custard before something clicked.
Thanks to awesome vegan products like Follow Your Heart’s VeganEgg and Miyoko’s Kitchen’s European Style Cultured VeganButter, I was able to make a creamy, tart and eggy custard, with a rich and buttery shortbread crust. The consistency you see in the custard here is a bit thicker than what the recipe below will produce, which is smoother and silkier, and kind of oozes and melts into the crimping of the shortbread crust.
Lemon-Saffron Custard Tarts
Prep
Cook
Inactive
Total
Yield 4, 4.75-inch tarts
Ingredients
FOR THE SHORTBREAD CRUST
- 1 1/2 cup AP flour
- pinch of salt
- 3/4 cup room-temp vegan butter Miyoko's Kitchen's European Style Cultured VeganButter
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp bourbon
FOR THE LEMON-SAFFRON CUSTARD
- 1, 13.66 oz. can full-fat coconut milk
- zest and juice of 2 lemons (about 1/2 cup juice)
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- a pinch of saffron, crushed
- 1 TB Follow Your Heart's VeganEgg
- 1 TB cornstarch whisked with 2 TB cold water
Instructions
TO MAKE THE SHORTBREAD CRUST
- Combine the flour and salt in one bowl.
- In a separate bowl, cream together the vegan butter and powdered sugar. Add in the bourbon and mix again to incorporate. Form into a rough ball, cover with plastic wrap and chill for about 30 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 4 equal-sized portions. Press each portion into each of the 4 tart pans, pressing the dough down firmly and evenly as possible. Place them into the refrigerator to chill for 45 minutes more.
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Bake tarts for 20 minutes, or until the tops are very slightly golden. Transfer to a rack and allow to cool.
TO MAKE THE LEMON-SAFFRON CUSTARD
- Whisk together all of the custard ingredients except for the cornstarch/water mixture.
- Bring the mixture to a small boil in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the cornstarch/water mixture and continue to stir until it thickens up.
- Allow to cool, then pour into the tart shells.
- Refrigerate for a few hours before serving.
Serve with aquafaba whipped topping and candied lemon or kumquat slices.
Notes
I used these tart pans to make this recipe.
I used this Martha Stewart recipe to make the candied lemon and kumquats.
I used this aquafaba fluff recipe from Seitan is my Motor.
Erin! Welcome to to the world of desserts! These look fabulous. ❤
Thanks Constanze! 🙂
These look so pretty! Just perfect for celebrating the citrus season 🙂
Thanks Maikki, they were fun to decorate!
Is it really more butter than flour? The crust dough seems very soft.
Whoops, that’s supposed to read 1 1/2 … it’s been adjusted! 🙂
I am so bummed. I am a seasoned baker and I have never had this many problems with a recipe. The dough fat to flour ratio is off and the custard doesn’t set. If the recipe was adjusted to fix these issues I think this would be super tasty!!!
DMO, sorry about the crust, it was a typo, and it’s been corrected. I’ve made the custard portion several times now based off of this recipe and it’s worked great, so I’m not sure what’s happening. Sorry it did not work out for you!
Thanks @erinwyso, I think the crust would be perfect with the adjusted amount of flour. My page hadn’t updated when I sent that last comment. I ended up adding more flour after the fact to fix it, hopefully it isn’t too tough. I am not sure what is up with the custard, Ill let it cool a bit longer to see if it comes together. If that doesn’t do it, then I’ll chalk it up to differences in coconut milk. Mine is full-fat, but I know there is still some variability. What is your go-to brand(s)? Also, thank you for the speedy replies!
DMO, yes, let the custard cool completely, and I think it should be fine! I made one additional batch using only the custard portion above, and it yielded a perfect pudding consistency, maybe a little firmer than a traditional pudding. If you find it’s still too thin after a complete cooldown (a few hours to overnight), another TB of cornstarch with 2 TB of water should thicken it up nicely. I (always) use canned Thai Kitchen full-fat coconut milk. I hope this works out for you! 🙂