Creamy Banana Tart with Vegan Strawberry Curd

As much as I try to keep my stashes of baking stuff and other grocery-like items under control, lately I've found myself overburdened with extra "bits and pieces" of things in the fridge and freezer. Not really enough on their own to serve as a main component of a dish, I still can't bear to throw them out since I might think of something someday. Finally, I got the proverbial "gavel drop" from Mom - use the bananas and homemade ricotta in the freezer and the vegan strawberry curd in the fridge or they were getting tossed. Humph.

Luckily, I had just finished reading and reviewing The Rosie's Bakery All-Butter, Cream-Filled, Sugar-Packed Baking Book and had a half-batch of it's amazing shortbread crust dough that I made with whole wheat also in my fridge (can you tell I'm like the culinary version of Hoarders?). I figured I'd make a small, "pied" cheesecake with the ricotta and bananas pureed into the luscious, creamy filling. Fruit generally goes with fruit, in my opinion, and ricotta cheese likes tangy-sweet strawberries in a bowl, so partway along I made an executive decision to bake that onto it too - almost like a sour cream topping on "normal" cheesecake. To keep the curd on top of the cheese custard, I only spread it on after the tart baked a bit. The whole thing came out beautifully - creamy and sweet but still relatively fresh tasting. I never added sweetner to the cheese mixture, figuring the crust and topping would be sufficient, and so when compared to your standard creamy pies or cheesecakes this dessert is incredibly low in sugar too.

What have you come up with out of random stock in your kitchen lately? Let me know in the comments!

Creamy Banana Tart with Vegan Strawberry Curd
Makes one 6" pie, 6 slices

Crust
2.5 oz salted butter, softened
2.5 tbsp powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp lemon extract
9 1/2 tbsp whole wheat pastry flour

Filling
2 large, over-ripe bananas
1 cup low-fat ricotta (like my Buttermilk Ricotta)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Topping
2/3 cup vegan strawberry curd

1. In a bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon extract until fluffy
2. Add the flour and beat until fluffy again.
3. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate 2 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 340F.
5. In a small food processor, puree the filling ingredients until smooth. Set aside.
6. Remove the crust from the fridge and press into the bottom and up the sides of a deep, 6" pie plate.
7. Pour in the filling, smoothing the top.
8. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 25 minutes.
9. Spread strawberry curd overtop of the partially baked filling, then return to the oven and bake a further 20 minutes.
10. Cool completely and chill before serving.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 314.6
Total Fat: 14.3 g
Cholesterol: 69.0 mg
Sodium: 131.5 mg
Total Carbs: 35.2 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.9 g
Protein: 7.8 g

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