Poppy Seed Tartlets – Grain, Dairy and Sugar Free

Poppy seed tartlets baked from grain, starches, dairy and sugar free dough with poppy seeds and citron peel filling, happen to be my plan B, after my initial project to bake poppy seed strudel was derailed. The texture of the dough I made was questionable, and I had my doubts that the dough can survive rolling and baking and that I would be able to make good-looking strudel. I had to think how to make another decent product and decided on mini tartlets and poppy seed squares, as a cut biscuit, baked from 2 layers of pastry and poppy seed filling in between.

I have made this pastry before for multiple very thin layers in Napoleon cake. This time, however, the process of dough preparation was simplified, and may be this simplified process was the reason of slightly different texture of the dough.

Ingredients:

dough

for 24 (2 different trays) tartlets and 18cm x 21cm rectangular bake, cut in square biscuits

• 140g almond meal
• 100g organic coconut flour
• 60g organic golden flax flour
• 100g raw organic coconut oil
• 2 large eggs
• pure apple puree (I used SPC), approximately 100g, add puree to eggs to make total weight 200g
• 3g xanthan gum

poppy seed filling

• 120g poppy seeds
• 160g raw organic honey
• 120g apple puree without added sugar
• 150ml water
• 60g citrus peel made with honey (I used peel made from blended Buddha fingers fruit)
• 15g organic virgin cacao butter (or coconut oil, shown on photo below)
• 1/2 coffee spoon pure vanilla bean powder (absent in the photo of ingredients)

candied citrus peel

• 110g blended Buddha fingers fruit (alternatively use chopped lemon peel)
• 110ml water
• 130g honey

Preparation:

candied citrus peel

• cut all whole “fingers” from the fruit
• peel thin layer of the skin from the rest of the fruit, do not use while bitter flesh from the inside
• blend all cuttings to the size of rice grain
• cover blended peel with plenty of water, heat to boiling point and cook for 3-5 minutes
• drain and discard the liquid
• place blended zest in a sauce pan (I had 110g), add honey and water and cook on low heat periodically stirring, until practically no liquid is left

• use 60g of cooked peel

poppy seed filling

use high sauce pan and the spoon with long handle to prepare poppy seed filling, when cooked even on low heat, the mixture behaves similar to that of caramel, be careful not to burn yourself

• divide poppy seeds in 2 portions
• grind 60g of poppy seeds in coffee grinder
• mix both portions of poppy seeds, add water, apple puree and honey
• heat to a boiling point and cook on a very low heat constantly stirring for 15-20 minutes
• add citrus peel and cacao butter and cook for another 15 minutes, the final consistency of the filling is similar to freshly cooked polenta
• add and stir in vanilla powder
• let the filling rest, it is better to prepare the filling ahead and store it refrigerated, it will develop deeper flavour in 2-3 days
• take from refrigerator 1-2 hours before use

dough 

It is not necessary to refrigerate the dough before rolling it out. The more you manipulate the dough, the more pliable it becomes. The dough is easily rolled between 2 sheets of baking paper. It can be used and reused again and again.

• combine all dry ingredients – coconut flour, almond meal, flaxseed flour and xanthan gum, mix them well
• put the mixture of dry ingredients through a sieve
• melt coconut oil
• mix eggs with apple puree with a whisk, add melted coconut oil, mix them together well
• add wet ingredients to dry ingredients
• mix  the wet ingredients in with a knife at first, using pastry scraper later

• gather all crumbs together, the more you work with the dough the better texture you will get
• shape the dough into a ball, let it rest for 10-15 minutes

• divide the dough into 2 portions
• use one for square bake (more difficult to master)
• use the second one to roll and cut out circles appropriate to the baking tray you use, I used one for mini-pies and the second for larger size macaroons
• for cut biscuits bake spread poppy seed filling on a rolled dough, cover with another layer of the dough, close the edges, brush the top dough layer with egg wash
• to use poppy seed filling in tartlets use pastry bag to fill tartlets
• the filling spreads very little during baking
• it is not necessary to grease baking trays

I used coarse almond meal for decoration in smaller size tartlets, and covered the filling with the pastry in larger ones.

• bake in preheated to 150C fan forced oven – flat biscuits for 30 minutes, tartlets in mini-pie tray for 18 minutes, tartlets in large macaroons tray for 20 minutes
• transfer tartlets to rest on a wire rack, I alway line it with baking paper when I bake grain and dairy free recipes to avoid cross contamination from my regular baking, which is only gluten free

This dough can be baked as empty shells and used to make tartlets with different sweet fillings: citron or berries based curds, custard type dairy free creams, Swiss meringue cream. Pastry shells from this dough have a mild sweet flavour from coconut flour and apple puree, but the dough does not have any sweeteners in it, and that is why these shells can be used as containers for different savoury fillings, both in the form of thick spreads, or even mini salads. The shells are quite dry and can withstand soft fillings without losing the structural stability.