Traditional Vietnamese Coffee Tarts, served with Pomegranate
Serve up a treat with these traditional Vietnamese coffee curd tarts – perfect as an after dinner treat!
Makes 6
Ingredients – Shells
- 175g flour
- 100g unsalted butter (chilled and diced)
- 1 ½ tbsp. caster sugar
- 1 tbsp cold water
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
- ¼ tsp. sea salt
Ingredients – Coffee Curd
- 3 eggs
- 45ml espresso
- 1 ½ oz caster sugar
- 2 tsp agar
- 3 tbsp condensed milk
- Pomegranate seeds
Method
- Sift both the flour and the salt into a large mixing bowl. Rub in the butter using your fingertips.
- Make a little well in the centre of the mixture and add the sugar, lemon juice and cold water. Lightly mix everything together to form a smooth paste. Shape the pastry into a round disc, cover in cling film and refrigerate for twenty minutes.
- Divide the pastry into six equal portions. Roll each segment out until you can easily cut out a 100mm diameter disc from it. Place this into a greased tart tin/baking tray.
- Cover the trays with foil and leave to rest in the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to 190°C (Gas Mark 6)
- Once heated, bake the tart shells for twenty minutes then reduce the oven’s temperature to 170°C (Gas Mark 4) and bake for a further ten minutes.
- Remove the shells from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.
While the pastry is cooling, prepare the coffee curd filling.
- Combine the eggs and sugar, whisk until the sugar dissolves. Add the agar, coffee and condensed milk and whisk again until thoroughly mixed.
- Add some water to a pan and heat until it is simmering.
- Place the bowl over the pan, but ensure that it does not touch either the pan or water. Continue whisking the mixture until it thickens.
- Pour into a chilled container and leave it to cool.
- Once chilled, pipe the curd into the tart shells. Add some pomegranate seeds as decoration.