Iced Nono Tart

Difficulty: Medium-Difficult

Serves 8-10

If you’re not Australian, you may not be familiar with the humble yet non-vegan Iced Vovo biscuit. If you are Australian, and vegan, you probably thought you’d never enjoy a treat of its kind again but you were wrong! I’ve been experimenting with vegan marshmallow recently and as long as you’ve got a good electric mixer, you should be able to recreate this classic Australian inspired tart at home; a biscuit base topped with strawberry marshmallow, jam and coconut.

Ingredients

Base

• 3/4 packet Digestive biscuits
• 1/4 cup vegan margarine, melted
• 1/4 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar

Filling

• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons agar agar powder
• 3/4 cup glucose syrup
• 1 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons strawberry essence (make sure it’s vegan)
• 1-3 drops pink food colouring (again, make sure it’s vegan)
• 1 300mL jar good quality strawberry jam
• 1/4 cup desiccated coconut

Method

1. Grease a loose base, rectangular tart pan.
2. Chuck the Digestives, 1/4 cup of the coconut, 1 tablespoon caster sugar and vegan margarine into a blender or food processor and combine until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
3. Press the mixture firmly into the base of the tart pan and up the sides and set aside.
4. To make the filling, put the agar and water in a saucepan on medium heat and whisk until it has dissolved.
5. Add the glucose syrup and caster sugar and increase the heat to high. Whisk constantly until the mixture comes to the boil but be careful not to let it boil over.
6. Remove from the heat and pour into your mixer bowl with whisk attachment. Slowly increase the mixer to high and after about 5 minutes add the strawberry essence and food colouring (add a little at a time until you get a pale pink colour).
7. Continue to mix for at least a further 5 minutes or until the mixture resembles whisked egg whites.
8. You’ll need to move quickly at this stage. Spread half of the marshmallow mixture into the tart base before piping the remainder in drops down each side, leaving a space in the middle (see photo).
9. Now bring your jam to the boil in a saucepan, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes before carefully spreading into the space in between the marshmallow drops.
10. Sprinkle with the remaining desiccated coconut and allow to set in the fridge before serving.