Country Living in Southern Africa

I love experimenting with food & I love special diet recipes and bringing cultures together in a dish. This Ricotta tart brings African, Afrikaans and Dutch together in my Mozambican kitchen with homemade cheese and juice from local Marula fruit and Speculaas spices from the Netherlands.

You can substitute the Marula-compote for another fruit that you have access to or if they aren’t in season, fruits like figs and berries come to mind. Speculaas spices can be substituted with a general mix-spice.

This recipe is gluten-free and low-carb, but portion control is advised, as large servings might push you over your daily carb limit if you are still trying to lose weight.

Ingredients

For the base:

• 180-gram ground almonds/almond flour
• 5 ml Speculaas spice
• 65-gram butter
• 5 ml Xylitol sweetener

For the Filling:

• 250-gram Ricotta Cheese (I used my own home-made cheese)
• 2 Tablespoons of Xylitol sweetener
• 1 Tablespoon of grated lemon peel
• 75-gram chopped almonds
• 10 ml Speculaas spice

For the Crust:

• 6 Tablespoons of Coconut Flour
• 1 tablespoon Xylitol
• 5 ml cinnamon
• 2 ml nutmeg
• 60-gram butter

For the Compote:

• 250ml Marula juice (Boil the green fruit in water until soft and drain through a cloth, like when you make Marula Jelly)
• 2 shots of Whisky
• 1/4 cup of Xylitol or more to taste

Method

Mix the Ground almonds, butter, Speculaas and xylitol and press into a 20cm greased spring-form pan. Put in the fridge.

Mix the compote ingredients, heat in a pan and let it simmer while stirring regularly until thick and sticky.

Preheat oven to 190°C.

Mix the ingredients for the filling and scoop it onto the base.

Mix the coconut flour, xylitol, spice and butter and carefully spread it over the filling. You will need to flatten small pieces in your hands and build an imperfect crust puzzle to cover the top. Bake for 15 minutes

Let it cool and top with almond shards.

Serve with fresh cream, lemon rind and mint leaves.

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