Ingredients
Method
For the shortcrust pastry
- In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt . Add the butter cubes. Lightly mix with your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
- Add cold water to the flour mixture, 1 tbsp at a time . Mix till the dough just comes together. Do not over-mix.
- With light hands, make a rough ball with the dough, wrap with cling film and refrigerate for 4 hrs. (even better overnight)
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator, keep outside for 15 minutes or so.
- Divide the dough roughly into 8 equal balls . Using a roller pin, roll out each dough ball to a round disk with 1/4” thickness.
- Place the dough disk in a greased mini tart pan. Gently press to give it the shape of the mould. Trim away any excess from the edges . Prick the bottom with a fork.
- Refrigerate the tart shell for 45 minutes.
- Put some pie weights on the shell (if you don’t have pie weights, you can put a baking parchment on the top of the crust and add some kidney beans for the weight) and bake them in a preheated oven for 12-15 minutes at 180C.
- Remove the tart shells from the oven the take out the pie weights.
- Return the tart shells to the oven, bake for another 12-15 minutes or until the shells become a light golden.
- Remove from the oven, allow them to cool down completely. Keep aside.
For the wood apple / bel pulp
- Gently crack the outer shell of the wood apple (like you crack a coconut). Remove the seeds gently along with slimy translucent jelly like thing surrounding it.
- Scoop out the flesh in a bowl. Splash a little water, massage the pulp to soften.
- Now keep rubbing the softened flesh against a sieve to extract the bel pulp. Continue splashing water and rubbing it till there’s no further pulp.
- Tie the pulp in muslin cloth and hang for 3-4 hrs or till all the water is drained . Do not skip this step.
For the wood apple / bel filling
- Transfer the wood apple / bel pulp to a mixing bowl, add the hung yogurt, powdered sugar and black salt. Mix well with a whisk till the mixture becomes creamy and smooth and there are no lumps.
- Feel free to add more sugar if you want. Your bel panna mix is ready.
- Cover with a clean film, keep refrigerated until use.
To assemble
- Take the baked pie crust, gently fill it with the bel panna mix.
- Whip heavy cream with powdered sugar till it forms soft peaks. Decorate with whipped cream.
- Keep in the refrigerator for an hour, serve cold.
Notes
You can bake the pie shell days ahead and store them in an airtight container. They stay good for a month or so.