Vanilla Raspberry Tart

Oh boy, Easter snuck up on me this year. ,This little dessert is divine and will be making an appearance on our Easter table this year in one form or another. I must stress that while on the PINK method, desserts should be an occasional treat, while everything is an allowed food (I think gelatin is allowed, it is almost pure protein and only 30 calories for the whole packet,) it is hard to fit it into the meal plan so I save desserts for special occasions like Easter! I am going to break it up into three parts, the crust, the filling and the raspberry sauce, I hope you all can follow along, feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Almond Coconut Crust
1 cup almond flour (How I make mine can be found here)
1/3 cup unsweetened coconut (also known as desiccated coconut, f you can't find go ahead and leave it out it will still taste great)
3 medjool dates
2 tbsp coconut oil

Method

Start by soaking your dates in warm water for about 20 minutes, this really helps to moisten/soften them up. I started by only using 2 but ended up needing 3 to the crust to stick together.

Add your pitted dates, almond flour, coconut, and coconut oil to your blender.

Blend until the dates are broken up and everything is combined to a consistency of sand.

Pour your crust mixture into the bottom of a pan, I used individual tart pans, you could use a spring-form pan or even a pie plate.

Press the crust mixture down so that it compacts and forms a crust.

Put the crust into the refrigerator so that the coconut oil will firm up and cause the crust to harden.

Start making your filling.

Vanilla Cream Filling
1 packet of plain gelatin powder
1 2/3 plain unsweetened almond milk
1 tbsp arrowroot powder
1 vanilla bean
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp greek yogurt
Stevia to taste

Method
Full disclosure: I came up with this recipe by modifying a recipe for Creme Brulee found in Rocco Dispirito's cookbook: Now Eat This

Start by adding 2 tbsp of almond milk to the gelatin to let it soften

 While the gelatin is softening, remove the seeds from your vanilla bean and add to the remaining almond milk along with the vanilla bean you just scraped the seeds out of. Vanilla beans are expensive so if you don't have any or don't want to buy any, you could also use the zest of a lemon here and get a lemon custard which would taste wonderful also.

Heat up the almond milk, vanilla bean/seeds, salt, arrowroot powder and stevia (everyone's taste with stevia  is different so use the amount you like, I used about 8-10 drops) on the stove until boiling. When it boils remove from the heat and fish out the vanilla bean pod.

Add about 1/3 cup of the hot milk into your gelatin which by now is pretty firm. The hot milk will help to melt the gelatin.

 When you have a smooth gelatin paste, add the paste back into the rest of the almond milk along with 2 tbsp of Greek yogurt. and stir until you have a smooth custard mixture. Do you see all the little vanilla seeds? I love vanilla!

Pull your crusts out of the refrigerator and pour your custard into the crust.

Put the crust/custard back into the refrigerator to firm up while you make your raspberry sauce.

Raspberry Sauce
1/2 cup raspberries (really you could use any berry here, strawberry would be great and are easy to find right now)
Water (if using fresh berries)

Method

 If you are using frozen berries like me, put them in your microwave for about a minute so that they unfreeze.

Once they are unfrozen or if you are using fresh berries, add the berries to your blender. If you are using fresh berries you may want to add a few tbsp of water to your berries to get a thinner sauce. If you used frozen berries, they should have enough liquid in them once they are defrosted.

Puree your berries in the blender until smooth. If they are really sour, add some stevia to sweeten.

If your berries have seeds like raspberries, strain them through a fine mesh strainer.

Pour your sauce into a bottle to drizzle over the top of the custard, feel free to skip this step and just drizzle it right over your tart.

Remove your tart from the refrigerator once the custard has set and drizzle with your raspberry sauce.

When I figured out the calorie count of this tart, each tart was about 230 calories. You could lower that by omitting the coconut in the crust and serving 8 rather than 6 if you made one big tart rather than individual tarts.

Enjoy!