Mango Tart with White Chocolate Pastry Cream (and Lilikoi Glaze) and Momentum

I am currently in survival mode.

I’m 80 days into diets and exercise and I’m looking for a more appropriate name for what I’m doing, perhaps, the, “I hate food” phase.

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs and looking at a lot of tumblrs of a completely foreign variety for me. There’s a group of people that get off on how ridiculously healthy they can be and not be turned off by the fact that their food looks like dog barf. 

It makes me realize that you have to be a little obsessive to lose a significant amount of weight. I’m not even the least bit interested in “thigh gap” so I know I’m not in danger of eating disorders, but you have to think about food and exercise pretty constantly. It’s easy to see how people cross that barrier between healthy and unhealthy thinking about the human body.

There’s something to be said for momentum. I’ve always been pretty fit, and still can run and hike despite any of my sizes, but now that I’ve finished Insanity once I can’t seem to stop myself from waking up at 5:30am every morning. I also am not interested in any workout that seems easier than Insanity.

I went from a diet of five 300-calorie meals a day (including carbs and occasional desserts) to Paleo about a week ago. I don’t think this will be a forever thing for me, but I’m trying it out for a month. So far I hate it but it’s more effective. The momentum helps keep me going.

I made this tart several weeks ago. It was a little easier to cheat on that diet. A huge thing I’ve missed while I’ve been doing all of this is the lack of pretty food.

I’d like to get momentum for blogging again. I’m starting a series of posts of foods that have been getting me through these last couple of months and what helps me stick to it. Probably most of you don’t have the same difficulty with all of this that I have, but if you do, I totally get it. It sucks. And almost nothing anyone says helps.

Tip #1: Gain Momentum. Make a commitment to a week (making a public announcement helps) and pretty soon you’ll feel like you have to do it because you’ve been doing it so long. Because, yes, a week feels like forever in the “I hate food” phase. You can email me and complain about it if you like. I know that’s what I like to do.

Does it seem weird to start a series of diet posts with a gorgeously fatty dessert? Not in my mind.

When I’m 30 lbs lighter, I might eat a whole one myself, if I ever get there.

Mango Tart with White Chocolate Pastry Cream (and Lilikoi Glaze)

1 tart crust (pate sucree), baked and cooled (I used the Cook’s Illustrated recipe), still in the pan.

1 recipe chilled White Chocolate Pastry Cream (Recipe Below)

1 mango, thinly sliced

1 recipe lilikoi glaze (recipe below), still warm

1) Assemble the tart by filling the crust with the pastry cream. Spread it evenly over the bottom of the tart. Fan the mango slices starting from the middle and working outwards. Dip a brush into the glaze and flick the glaze all over the fruit. Chill until serving, several hours is best. Remove the tart from the pan just before serving.

White Chocolate Pastry Cream (adapted from Cook’s Illustrated Pastry Cream Recipe)

• 1 Cup cream
• 1 Cup milk
• 6 Tbsp sugar, divided
• pinch table salt
• 5 egg yolks
• 3 Tbsp cornstarch
• 4 oz chopped white chocolate
• 3 Tbsp cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1. Heat cream, milk, and 4 Tbsp sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir frequently until simmering.
2. While the milk is heating, whisk together 2 Tbsp sugar with egg yolks until the sugar dissolves and it looks very creamy. Whisk in the cornstarch and stir rapidly for 30 more seconds. The liquid should be pale and thick. Once the cream and milk is simmering, temper the yolks by slowly streaming in 1 Cup of the hot cream as you whisk. Whisk constantly while doing this. Then combine the yolks into the pan, whisking as you pour, and stir constantly until the pastry cream becomes thick and barely begins to bubble. This should take about 30 seconds. Don’t wait too long or the cream will curdle.
3. Take the pan off the heat and toss in the white chocolate. Whisk constantly until the chocolate is completely melted. Stir in the unsalted butter.
4. Put the hot pastry cream in a pan or wide bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface and let the cream chill in the refrigerator until very cold, about four hours or overnight.

Lilikoi Glaze:

• 1/2 Cup lilikoi puree
• 1/3 Cup sugar

1. In a small saucepan, whisk together the lilikoi and sugar over medium high heat. Stirring often, bring the lilikoi to a high simmer. Stir until the lilikoi is reduce and thick enough to spread. Make sure the lilikoi glaze is still very warm when you apply it to the mango. Flick and paint the glaze on the top of the mangos.