Easter Tartelettes with Vegan Advocaat
When we plan our recipes for the blog, we always like to be inspired by non-vegan dishes. This happens, for example, in a restaurant with friends, over memories from our childhood, but also while scrolling online. While doing the latter, we found a dessert that looked like fried eggs when in fact, it was heavy cream with halved apricots. Genius! We knew right away that we need to recreate this!
While you often find this idea in the form of muffins, we will bake tartelettes because we wanted to hide some vegan advocaat in the filling! The components of our tartelettes are simple: a shortbread crust, vegan eggnog, vegan whipped cream, halved canned apricots, and a few chopped pistachios for garnish. If you want to prepare the advocaat alcohol-free, just replace the vodka or rum with non-alcoholic options or even with plant-based milk.
We prepare the advocaat for the tartelettes just as we did for our vegan advocaat cake, but omit the vegan cream to get a thicker mixture. Feel free to adjust the consistency according to your preferences – if you prefer your vegan advocaat to be a bit more liquidy, add some plant-based milk or cream. We used baking tins with a diameter of 14.5 cm (6 inches) for the tartelettes, but you could also use any other sizes. Depending on the size of your baking tins, you can also choose your "egg yolk": for larger tartelettes, halved peaches will work best; for smaller tartelettes, you should look out for halved apricots or mirabelles.
If you're planning to prepare these tartelettes for your Easter brunch, save yourself some stress and prepare them in advance. One day ahead, pre-bake the tartelette crusts and prepare the vegan advocaat and whipped cream, which can both chill in your fridge overnight. This way, you only need to finish and garnish them right before brunch. This way, the dough won't get soggy, and all components will have enough time to chill.
Easter Tartelettes with Vegan Advocaat
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 200 g (1.66 cups) wheat flour type 405
- 50 g (0.25 cup) sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- 100 g (3.5 oz) vegan butter
- 3-5 tbsp ice-cold water
For the advocaat:
- 10 g (0.33 oz) vanilla custard powder
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 125 ml (0.5 cup) plant-based milk
- 0.5 vanilla bean
- 25 ml (1.5 tbsp) rum or vodka
- 1 pinch of kala namak
- 1 pinch of turmeric
For the vegan whipped cream:
- 100 ml (0.5 cup) vegan cream for whipping
- 4 g (1 tsp) vanilla sugar
- 4 g (1 tsp) cream stiffener
Also:
- 4 halved canned peaches, apricots, or mirabelles (depending on the size of the tartelette tins)
- vegan butter for greasing
- flour for dusting
- chopped pistachios for serving
Instructions
Dough
In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, and salt. Add cold vegan butter in flakes and knead to combine with cold hands.
Add very cold water tablespoon by tablespoon until you get a smooth dough. We needed 3 tablespoons, but you could need less or more for your dough. It should be smooth, but not sticky.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Vegan advocaat
In the meantime, prepare the vegan advocaat. Prepare custard powder according to package instructions. Usually, you mix custard powder with sugar, then gradually add some plant-based milk until the mixture is smooth. Bring remaining plant-based milk to a boil while stirring, then add the mixed powder. Let the pudding simmer for approx. 1 minute while constantly stirring. Remove from heat and let cool down.
Halve a vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape out the vanilla pulp with the back of a knife.
Add vanilla pulp, rum or vodka, kala namak, and turmeric to the pudding and stir to combine. Season to taste and refrigerate for at least one hour.
The vegan whipped cream can also be prepared in advance. Add vegan heavy cream, vanilla sugar, and cream stiffener to a bowl and whip until still. Refrigerate until needed.
Baking & decorating
Preheat the oven to 175°C/350°F (convection). Grease your tartelette baking tins with vegan butter and dust with flour.
Divide the dough into equal-sized quarters. Flour a working surface and roll out each dough until it's approx. 0.5 cm (0.2 inches) thick. Carefully transfer each of the doughs to a tartelette baking tin and lightly press them into the molds. Remove any overhanging dough. Prick the bottom of the dough several times with a fork.
Bake the tartelette crusts on the middle rack of your oven at 175°C/350°F for approx. 10-15 minutes, or until browned. Remove from the oven and let the tartelette crusts cool down before removing them from the baking tins.
Once the crusts are chilled, fill the tartelettes with vegan advocaat to about 80%. Using a teaspoon, spread the whipped cream to make it look like the egg white part of a fried egg. Top with a canned halved apricot to create the “egg yolk“. Sprinkle with chopped pistachios and serve right away.
