Healthy banana and custard tarts

Bananas and custard go together like chocolate and cherries. I enjoy a custard tart as a guilty pleasure. I’m often reminded of Geoffrey Palmer’s character Lionel Hardcastle from the television series As Time Goes By, but I draw the line at hiding my custard tarts in cupboards. I like to share some of my sweet treats, and these healthy banana and custard tarts are certainly something to be enjoyed with others.

There’s a little bit of sugar, thanks to the natural sweetener, but the banana adds some of your daily dose of vitamins B12 and B6, not to mention potassium and magnesium. It would be a stretch for me to say these banana and custard tarts are good for you, wouldn’t it? Anyway, this recipe is perfect if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands.

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 1 banana
• Juice of 1/2 orange
• 2 cups light milk
• 1 vanilla pod
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 4 egg yolks, plus an extra egg to use as egg wash
• 1/4 nutmeg, grated
•  1/4 cup all natural sweetener (I used a stevia and monk fruit blend)
• 8 sheets filo pastry
• Extra virgin olive oil spray

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Slice banana into a small bowl and cover with orange juice. Set aside.
3. Pour milk into a small saucepan. Slice open vanilla pod and scrape the seeds into the milk, then add the pod as well to infuse. Place over a moderate heat to warm, but not boil milk.
4. Mix cornflour with a little cold milk to form a paste. Pour a little of the warm milk in and combine before pouring corn flour mixture into the pan of warm milk. Add egg yolks and nutmeg. Whisk to combine custard, whisking occasionally until thickened. Add sweetener and stir to combine. Set aside.
5. Brush a non-stick (but not silicon – they tend to make your tarts soggy) muffin tray with extra virgin olive oil. Take a sheet of filo and spray with olive oil, then fold over three times to form roughly a square, spraying a little more oil between each layer. Gently press the filo square into a muffin hole, scrunching the top sides a little to form a tart case. Repeat with the remaining filo sheets.
6. Place one slice of banana in the bottom of each tart and then pour over the custard. Finish with another slice of banana on the top. Grate over a little extra nutmeg and brush the visible pastry with egg wash.
7. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the custard is set. (Don’t worry if it’s a little wobbly – it firms up as the tarts cool.) Gently prise out of the muffin case and place on a wire rack to cool.