I’m terribly sorry for leading you astray AGAIN, but you have to try this vegan fig frangipane tart as it’s delicious. Even better, make it and share it with someone who thinks that veganism is about deprivation and sacrifice and see how deprived they feel 😉 .
I’m pleased to say that the original, made with a prolific amount of butter and eggs, has nothing on this plant-based version. The crust is ‘buttery’ and deliciously crumbly. The filling is beautifully fragrant, oozing sweet, juicy figs, crispy on top, soft in the middle and totally indulgent. At first glance, this recipe may look way too complex and strenuous to make. Please don’t let that get in the way of your dessert hour and let me explain. I’ve provided two versions for the pastry: regular and gluten-free, plus two versions for the filling. One is made with plain old caster sugar and one is made with maple syrup. The reason is that I don’t want anyone to miss out on this French-inspired beauty and I know that some of you are keen to avoid refined sugar. I have not tried any other configurations, but I am pretty sure any gluten-free flour mix will work for the pastry so you don’t need to use buckwheat flour per se, although I am personally keen on the subtly nutty flavour it brings to the table, especially when combined with maple syrup. This tart has been a roaring success in my house and amongst Duncan’s yoga classmates too as he shared a few pieces with them as a post-yoga treat (cake-asana). They were very happy to oblige, apparently. I was doubly happy – happy to hear that it went down so well and happy that it didn’t all end up in my belly 😉 , which is always a challenge when you blog about food for a living. As you can probably tell, I really enjoy making desserts. I have this fantasy that one day I will open a little coffee shop, which will only serve vegan pastries and cakes but no one will never know they are vegan (unless they ask 😉 ) as I reckon there is still a lot of prejuice around vegan food. I simply love it when the information people’s tastebuds send to their brain clashes with their preconceived idea of what they think a vegan cake would taste like, for example. And then the questions start pouring out: ‘so there are no eggs in that?’ No, but I’m taking it as a compliment.
200 g / 1¾ cups buckwheat flour 40 g / 4 tbsp cornstarch ½ tsp xantham gum 2 tbsp icing / fine sugar OR maple syrup 90 g / 6 level tbsp (not melted!) refined coconut oil*
FRANGIPANE FILLING
80 ml / 1/3 cup mild olive oil 115 g / ½ cup + 1 tbsp caster sugar OR maple syrup 35 g / ¼ cup plain flour OR rice flour (for GF version) 90 ml / ¼ + 1/8 cup aquafaba homemade / from a tin** 240 g / 2½ cups almond meal OR finely ground almonds*** ½ tsp almond essence zest of 2 unwaxed lemons or oranges 4 figs, cut into quarters or slices
FILLING
***To make almond meal, grind skinned almonds (or whole) in a food processor or a coffee grinder (the latter will give you a finer grind). Be careful not to overblend as almonds will start releasing their natural oils and start turning into butter. Sift the ground almonds through a fine sieve and grind whatever is left on the sieve again until fine. If you don’t have a coffee grinder, a food processor will do a decent enough job, although the filling will be a little bit coarser. Instead of almonds, you could also use pistachios.
