Work of Tart
you deserve a treat and we've got just the recipe
WHAT TF IS UP BROILER ROOMIES?! We know this weekend is packed with activities like Passover, Easter, Coachella, and laundry so we’re not gonna waste any of your precious time- so we’re sending this a day earlier out of love and deep respect for you, our beloved supporters. And since you made it through our Salad Bootcamp you deserved a lil something sweet.
If you’ve got some time to sneak into the kitchen this weekend, this pistachio custard we’re sharing is truly magic. Just remember that puddings need time to cool so you might wanna make this ASAP because the cravings will hit soon. We’re serving it up as deep tartelettes baked in a muffin tin but the possibilities are endless. Pour it into popsicle molds with some extra chopped nuts for some creamy paletas, layer it on top of broken lady fingers or vanilla wafers with some fresh fruit, or serve it on a spoon aimed right at your mouth. You can’t go wrong. Trust us, we’ve been eating it for two weeks straight.
Pistachio Custard
Makes about 3 cups
1 cup raw or roasted pistachios*
½ cup raw cashews
1 cup water
1 cup almond or your favorite non dairy milk
½ cup cane sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon non dairy butter or coconut oil
1 teaspoon almond extract
In a small bowl mix together the pistachios and cashews. Cover them with water and let them soften up on the counter overnight. In a hurry? Cover them with hot water and let them sit out for at least one hour before you get cooking. Either way is fine.
Once the nuts are softish, drain off the soaking water, and give em a lil rinse. Throw them in a blender with 1 cup of water and let that shit run until it looks super smooth. If your blender sucks and you need to add a little more water to get it going, that’s fine. Just add it one tablespoon at a time so you don’t fuck up the ratios too much..
Now in a medium saucepan, whisk together the almond milk, sugar, cornstarch, and salt until there aren’t chunks of cornstarch floating around in there. Whisk in the pistachio mixture. Turn on the heat below the pan to medium-high and whisk frequently while the pan comes to a simmer.
Once simmering, turn the heat to low, and whisk for the next 3 minutes as the custard starts to really thicken up. Make sure you’re scraping the sides and the bottom of the pan as you go because pudding skin is disgusting and must be eliminated. Once the custard feels like a good thickness- you should know pudding consistency at this point in your life- turn off the heat and whisk in the butter and almond extract.
Once the butter has melted, pour the pudding into a container to let it cool. To avoid pudding skin, place plastic wrap or wax paper right on the surface of the custard as it chills. It’ll take a few hours in the fridge to get nice and cool. Serve chilled or eat it kind of warm in secret bites out of the fridge. Zero judgment from us.
If your custard feels too thick once it’s set in the fridge, don’t stress just whisk in a couple tablespoons of almond milk to loosen it up.
Wanna make tartelettes like us? Here’s our recipe for an easy pressed crust. We didn’t run out and buy a specialty pan, so we grabbed our standard muffin tin for deep little tarts. You can make both the custard and these crusts ahead of time and then fill ’em right before serving. Easy as hell.
*raw tastes great but if you can only find roasted it’s still totally delicious and worth making
Pressed Shortbread Crust
Makes 10 tartelettes
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup melted non dairy butter
¼ cup cane sugar
¼ cup of your favorite non dairy milk
Warm your oven up to 375 degrees and grease the cups of your standard 12-cup muffin pan.
Put all the ingredients in your food processor and run that until a nice, crumbly dough appears. Add 2 tablespoons of the dough to each cup until you run out of dough. Press the dough on the bottom and up the sides of each cup until, you know, it looks like a crust. Stab the bottom of each with a fork and stick the completed pan in the freezer for 15 minutes. You can do this up to 24 hours in advance and just leave the pan in there until you’re ready to tart it up.
When you’re ready to bake, fill the 2 empty cups with a little water to prevent scorching and stick the pan in the oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges start to look a little golden. Let the crusts cook in the pan. When cooled, take a sharp knife and kind of pop them out. It shouldn’t be too hard.
Fill the cooled crusts with the custard and top with a raspberry and some grated pistachio if you’re feelin’ fancy. Serve right away.
We hope y’all have a great weekend even if you’re just sleeping in and cleaning your apartment. We’ve got lots of great recipes like Spring Dumplings and Easy Homemade Pasta coming up in the next couple weeks. They’re all fucking amazing and we can’t wait to share them with you. Thanks again for all your support. It means the world.
Michelle and Matt