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Vegan Gluten-Free Mini Fruit Tarts

These vegan gluten-free mini fruit tarts are the perfect two-bite summer treat. Buttery cookie crust is stuffed with silky cashew cream cheese filling and fresh strawberries, kiwi, and blueberries. These mini tarts can be prepared up to two days ahead of time and are ideal for a crowd!
Prep Time45 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Total Time55 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Gluten-Free, plant-based, Vegan
Servings: 18 mini tarts

Ingredients

Cashew Cream Cheese Filling

  • ¾ cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours (preferably overnight) and drained
  • ¾ cup unsweetened almond milk or other plant-based milk
  • ½ cup melted coconut butter (it should be runny and pourable—see note*)
  • ¼ cup pure maple syrup
  • 1 ½ tablespoons apple cider vinegar (for a cream cheese like tang)
  • 2 teaspoons coconut flour
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt

Mini Cookie Crusts

  • 1 cup coconut sugar
  • ¼ cup virgin coconut oil, at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 ½ cups oat flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
  • 2 tablespoons filtered water

Toppings

  • Strawberries, hulled and diced
  • Blueberries
  • 1 kiwi, peeled and diced

Instructions

For the Cashew Cream Cheese Filling

  • Add the soaked cashews and almond milk to a high-speed blender, and blend on high until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides as often as needed. The texture should resemble thick cream.
  • Add the remaining icing ingredients and blend for 30 seconds, or until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed.
  • Scoop the filling into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer for at least 30 minutes (preferably 1 hour) to thicken, whisking every 10 minutes.

For the Mini Cookie Crusts

  • Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F. Line a mini muffin tin with mini parchment paper baking cups.
  • In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the coconut sugar, coconut oil, and vanilla on high speed for 1 minute.
  • In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the oat flour, baking powder, and sea salt. Place within reach of the mixer.
  • With the mixer off, add the water to the coconut sugar mixture and start beating while slowly adding the oat flour mixture. Beat for 30 seconds, or until the dough pulls together into large, moist mounds as it moves around the mixing bowl. When you first add the dry ingredients, the dough will be dry and crumbly; however, just keep beating on high—the finished dough will look and feel similar to Play-Doh. If the dough is still dry and crumbly after beating for 30 seconds, add more filtered water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and continue beating until it pulls together.
  • Scoop approximately 2 teaspoons of the dough into each baking cup, dividing any extra dough evenly among the 18 baking cups. Use your fingers to press the dough firmly and evenly into the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of each cup, forming a well.
  • Bake for 8–12 minutes, or until the crusts are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs at the tip. If you prefer a soft, chewy, cookielike crust, bake for 8–10 minutes; if you prefer a crisper crust, bake for 10–12 minutes. They'll puff up quite a bit while baking; however, they'll fall and settle back into crust shape as they cool. Also, don't worry if there is an oily sheen to the crusts when you first remove them from the oven; the oil will be reabsorbed as they cool.
  • Transfer the pan to an oven-safe cooling rack. Cool completely.

To Assemble

  • Spoon a bit of the cashew cream cheese filling into each cookie crust** and top with the fruit.
  • Serve immediately or chill in the refrigerator to firm and thicken the filling. With a few more hours of chill time, the filling firms up to a thick, cream-cheese-like texture.
  • Leftovers can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.***

Notes

*It's very important that the coconut butter is in a liquid state before blending. I find it’s easiest to make a fresh batch of homemade coconut butter and simply measure off ½ cup while it's still in a liquid state. However, store-bought coconut butter will yield a smoother icing because it's typically much smoother than homemade coconut butter. That said, store-bought coconut butter can be tricky to melt because it scorches and burns easily which leads to a seized, hardened texture.
** Extra filling can be refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen for up to 1 month.
***If you're preparing these ahead of time to serve a crowd, I recommend making the filling and tart crusts in advance (up to 4 days ahead of time) and storing each separately—the filling in the refrigerator and the crusts at room temperature. Then, the day of serving, simply spoon the filling into the tart crusts and top with freshly diced fruit.