Tamarillo tarts with coconut orange custard

Babiche Martens

Ingredients

2 cups	Water
8	Tamarillos (Main)
1 cup	Caster sugar
2 sheets	Shortcrust pastry
1	Egg
1 Tbsp	Milk

Custard

½ cup	Milk
½ cup	Cream
1	Vanilla bean
3	Eggs, (yolks only)
¼ cup	Caster sugar
3 Tbsp	Shredded coconut
1	Orange, (finely grated zest)
1 to dust	Icing sugar

Directions

1. Cut a cross on the end of each tamarillo with the point of a sharp paring knife. Put into a saucepan and cover with water and sugar. Simmer for 20 minutes then let cool. Remove the fruit from the syrup, peel and slice. Simmer the liquid until it becomes syrupy.
2. Preheat the oven to 200C. Grease an oven tray and cut the pastry into 4. Whisk the egg and milk together then brush over the pastry.
3. Add slices of tamarillo then bake for approximately 20 minutes or until golden, making sure the pastry is cooked underneath.
4. To make the custard, bring the milk, cream and vanilla bean to a simmer. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and caster sugar.
5. Whisk in the warm milk mixture and pour into a saucepan. Cook over a gentle heat for at least 10 minutes while stirring gently with a wooden spoon until the custard thickens. Strain and stir in the scraped seeds from the vanilla pod, orange zest and toasted coconut.
6. Serve the tarts warm with the custard and a dusting of icing sugar.