4 1/2 inch tart pan with a removable bottom.
The pleasure of a dessert has many facets. Of course it has to be delicious but it also adds a lot to your experience if it’s beautiful. And, I must admit, there’s nothing much prettier in the dessert department than a tart!
So I went on Amazon looking for miniature tart pans. They were selling a set of six 4 ½ inch pans with removable bottoms (very important), from Golda’s Kitchen (a company in Mississauga, Ontario). I’m still experimenting with recipes, but the easiest and most tasty so far is one that uses a simple raw vegan crust made from walnuts and dates and is filled with my favorite soy ice cream. Top it with some raspberries and you have an elegant and delicious treat. Its presentation will impress your guests and they will never know it took you 10 minutes to prepare it. The soy and walnuts make this a heart healthy, guilt free dessert.
I love soy ice cream but you need to taste different brands to see which one you like as they vary in sweetness and texture. There are some terrific ones on the market now and the selection continues to grow. I like Turtle Mountain’s “So Delicious Dairy Free Creamy Vanilla” and another favorite is “Soy Dream Green Tea”.
For my non vegan friends, feel free to fill this tart with healthy, low fat frozen yogurt full of live cultures. Our local yogurt shop makes a flavor called, “simply Sebastopol”. It contains organic non fat milk and is sweetened with organic agave syrup which has a lower glycemic index than regular cane sugar.
Another non vegan option for those of you who may be allergic to cow milk or soy milk products is Laloo’s goat’s milk ice cream. Their grass fed goats roam around on 350 acres in Sonoma County, California. Their ice cream is low in fat, contains no growth hormones, has live active cultures and allows superior digestibility over cow’s milk. Many lactose intolerant people can tolerate goat’s milk. My husband picked up some “Deep Chocolate” for his tart and it was truly amazing.
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Ice Cream Tart with Raspberries
2 1/4 cups raw walnuts
9 large Medjool dates, pitted and coarsely chopped
¼ teaspoon salt
Quart of your favorite ice cream
Raspberries for garnish
Remove ice cream from the freezer and let soften. Process walnuts and salt in a food processor until course. Add dates and process until the mixture starts to stick together but be careful not to over process. This will make 3 cups of crust. Use a minimum of 1/3 cup per tart. Oil the bottom and sides of the tart pan. Press the nut mixture firmly in the bottom and place enough ice cream over the crust to fill the pan. With a very long and thin spatula (the kind used to ice a cake), spread the ice cream out until it is very smooth and completely even with the top of the pan. Place in the freezer until hard (at least 4 hours). Carefully remove the tart by placing it on top of a small glass or jar smaller than the removable disk in the tart pan (I use a large vitamin bottle) and pushing down until the tart comes out. Leave the disc on the bottom of the tart (it’s too hard to remove) and place tart in a small dish. Garnish with raspberries and serve immediately.
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