Sunshine Tart

By Carmen Niehaus

Slowly but surely, we are heading towards the change of season. On the West Coast the flowers are blooming, their faces turned to the sun, ready to welcome spring and to convert the veld into a wonder world bursting with colour. An unforgettable scenery that everybody must experience once in a lifetime.

The pyramid teas from Carmién Tea are reminiscent of this uniqueness which makes the West Coast and Namaqualand so special. I have chosen the Carmién Zesty Lemon from the range, because the zesty yellow spells sunny flowers and sunshine to me. The tea itself has a smooth and refreshing rooibos and fruity taste with spearmint and lemony flavours. The creamy filling is made with yoghurt, and the rooibos and lemon are subtle and work wonderfully with the bananas and meringue – think banoffee pie and lemon meringue combined, but not too sweet. Lovely!

CRUST
80 ml (⅓c) brown sugar or sweetener
375 ml (1½c) oats
125 ml (½c) desiccated coconut
90 ml (k) coconut flour
Pinch baking powder
Pinch salt
2 eggs
About 160 ml (⅔c) coconut oil or butter, melted
FILLING
180 ml (¾c) sugar or sweetener
4 extra-large eggs
180 ml (¾c) full-cream yoghurt
180 ml (¾c) Carmién Zesty Lemon rooibos tea (made with 4 bags), cooled
3 bananas, sliced
MERINGUE
4 egg whites
180 ml (¾c) castor sugar
Pinch of cream of tartar
15 ml (2 T) cornflour
5 ml (1 t) vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Spray a 23-cm loose-bottomed pie dish with cook ‘n spray.
1 CRUST Place the sugar, oats, coconut, and coconut flour together with the baking powder and salt in the bowl of the food processor and process till fine. Add the egg and process till mixed. Then add just enough melted coconut oil or butter and process till you can press together the mixture in a dough.
Press into the prepared pie dish, chill for 30 minutes, then bake for 10 minutes.
2 Lower the heat to 140°C.
3 FILLING Beat together the sugar, eggs, yoghurt, and rooibos till well mixed. Pour into the prepared crust. Bake for 10 minutes, then arrange the banana slices on top.
Lower the heat to 90°C en bake till the filling is just set, about 30 minutes. Let cool.
4 MERINGUE Place the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar in a glass bowl. Fill a pot with boiling water and fit the bowl over the pot making sure that the bowl does not touch the water. Simmer for 3 minutes while beating till the sugar is dissolved.
5 Remover from the heat and beat for another 10 minutes with an electrical hand mixer till glossy and stiff. Fold in the cornflour and vanilla essence. Spoon onto the tart and lightly scorch with a blow torch.