We’re back from Europe and like all back to reality moments, depression is slowly starting to creep in. For me the sadness not only lies in the thoughts of heading back to the work grind, but the fact that I won’t be eating delicious fresh from the oven French bread or the melt in your mouth Pateis de natas from Portugal or the amazing cataplanas or, yes the list doesn’t end. I guess once I’ve gotten around to organizing all my photos I’ll just have to reminisce about the trip by creating a few blogs of the foodie experiences we encountered along the way. Let’s just say I need to hit the gym to regain the “fit” part in the title of this blog.
Aside from all the sadness of missing my vacationing life, there is one bright light at the end of the tunnel and that would be getting back in to my kitchen and experimenting with the different flavours that we’ve picked up along the way (and also hitting the gym as mentioned above to then work off all the experimenting that’s going on in said kitchen). I can barely contain myself when I started to do some searches on healthier alternatives to the delicious sweets we tasted such as almond cakes, molten chocolate cakes, the little Moroccan pastries and the list goes on. So I thought it would be fitting to reintroduce my buzzing brain to the blog with a nice light dessert or snack (sort of gotten use to eating pastries in the morning as well, bad bad me).
This version of the coconut tart is made with yogurt and instead of a butter cookie crust or pie crust I opted to use the lighter phyllo pastry as a shell which lowers the fat and calorie intake as well. If you feel that the jam might be a bit sweet you can definitely omit it as suggested as well by the original recipe. Hope you guys all enjoy!
Ingredients:
2 cups plain low fat yogurt
2 tbsp butter
1 /2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 /2 cup of your favorite jam
4 sheets of phyllo pastry
Preparation:
Place yogurt in a coffee filter or cheesecloth and strain for 2-4 hours in the fridge to remove excess liquid. This step is crucial in helping the tart set correctly. If you can’t strain the yogurt for the suggested time then aim for at least an hour.
Preheat oven to 400ºF.
Grease a 12 cup muffin tin. Roll out phyllo pastry and cut each in to 4x4 inch squares. Line each of the cups with 3-4 squares of phyllo pastry.
Beat the sugar and butter together in a mixing bowl. Measure out 1 /2 cup of the drained yogurt and add it to the creamed mixture. Blend well, add the egg and vanilla extract and keep blending. Mix in the coconut.
In each phyllo cup place 1 tsp of jam and spread the coconut mixture over top.
Bake in the oven for 10 mins, then turn the oven to 350ºF and bake for another 5-10 mins or until the phyllo pastry has completely browned on the edges.
Serve warm with a side of vanilla frozen yogurt and refrigerate the leftovers. The tarts should be good for up to 3 days in the fridge.
Makes 12 tarts.
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