A friend had a Vicars and Tarts theme party tonight, as a birthday party.

I decided with some creative misinterpretation to go dressed as a priest (in day clothes), and bring a tart. The slight problem with this otherwise brilliant idea is that I'm allergic to virtually all the ingredients in a tart. So a little more creativity was required. It worked reasonably well, but could do with some refinement particularly in quantities.

Fruit tart (non-dairy, non-gluten, non-egg, non-strawberry)

This recipe is heavily based on two recipes in the Allergy self-help cookbook (of which I actually have the 1994 edition), which are the "Rice-Flour Pie Crust" (page 289, in 1994 edition), and "Fruit-Fluff Pie" (page 286, in 1994 edition). The tart is essentially an open-top pie.

Due to timing the fruit filling should be made first and ready to chill before the crust goes into the oven. The filling needs 20-30 minutes chilling during preparation, plus an hour or so to set; the crust takes 20-30 minutes to make, and isn't needed until the filling is prepared.

Fruit filling

  • 1/2 cup unsweetened apple juice
  • 10g gelatine (eg, 1 sachet Davis Gelatine)
  • Approx 100g raspberries, cores removed
  • Large, ripe, banana, peeled and broken into small chunks
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice

Combine apple juice and gelatine in pot, leave to sit for a few minutes.

Blend raspberries, banana, honey and lemon juice slowly until smooth. Briefly warm gelatine mixture to disolve gelantine, but do not allow to boil. With blender on slow add gelatine mixture to fruit mixture and blend together. Pour into mixing bowl and refrigerate until mixture begins to set (likely to take 20-30 minutes). Make crust (below).

Once mixture thick enough to form mounds when dropped from a spoon, beat mixture to add air and make it light and fluffy (preferably with electric mixer, but a hand whisk will do). Spoon fruit filling into crust, and place in fridge to chill and set. Likely to take about an hour to set.

Crust

  • 1/3 cup fine ground almonds
  • 1/2 cup rice bran
  • 1/4 cup white rice flour
  • 1/4 tsp ground cinamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 6 tbsp water
  • 4 tbsp vegetable oil (eg, rice brain oil)
  • 4 tbsp honey

Combine all dry ingredients well in a bowl. Tip into lined 20cm pie tin (ideally with removable base), spreading evenly over base.

Warm water, oil and honey in pot to melt honey and stir together. Pour over dry ingredients to wet all of dry ingredients. Mix wet and dry ingredients together, and spread over base. Allow flour a few minutes to absorb liquid then shape crust in tin into flat base with approximately 2cm edge.

Bake for 18 minutes at 175C. Remove to cool.

Topping

  • Fresh fruit for topping (eg, kiwifruit, peaches, nectarines, etc)

Once fruit filling is set in crust, remove from fridge and from take surround off the pie tin. Thinly slice fresh fruit and add on top of tart. Serve.