“You can’t call yourself a Jamaican if you have never had a plantain tart! As a child, my favourite Jamaican pastry hands down was Gizzard with Plantain Tart coming in at a solid second place. Making this pastry is quite simple, especially if using the ready-made frozen pie shells. Traditionally, red food colouring is used but the only colours available to me at the time were yellow, blue and green so I used yellow food colouring, which really enhanced the natural yellow colour of the plantain.” – Chantay Campbell, Greedy Girl Cooks
This Plantain Tart's crust is fool proof but the filling is a winner! The cinnamon, nutmeg and almond extract pair amazingly well with the plantain.
- 2 plantains
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon. cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup brown Sugar
- Food colouring
- 1 pie crust
- 1 egg
- White sugar
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
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Fill a small pot with water and bring to a boil. Add sugar, salt vanilla and plantains to the water, and let boil until plantains are soft and fully cooked.
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Strain the liquid and place the plantains in a bowl; add almond extract, nutmeg, vanilla, brown sugar and cinnamon then mash the mixture into a smooth paste and allow to cool.
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Beat one egg and roll out the pie crust into a large circle; fill half of the crust with the cooled plantain filling, leaving a ½-inch space at the edges.
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Brush edges with egg, then fold over and crimp with a fork.
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Slice three air holes into the top; brush the entire tart with egg wash and liberally sprinkle top with white sugar.
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Bake until golden brown.
- For speedy cooling, pop the filling in the freezer for 5 minutes.
- I use Pillsbury ready-made frozen pie crusts