Vegan tangerine crostata with a veil of chocolate

Last week it was my father's birthday and one of my colleagues from the pizzeria suggested to make a surprise cake, which we would bring to him at work. I immediately started thinking what to do, for I found it hard to come up with something colourful and festive that would suit my father's vegan diet and his personal preferences. After a bit of surfing on the Internet, I came to find the website of Vegolosi.it, where I was surprised to see an endless list of recipes. Among them a colourful fruit crostata, which I decided to make for my dad, using the kinds of fruit I could find in the nearest supermarket. Since it was the first time I made a crostata, I had some problems finding the right consistency of the dough, but I was still pleasantly surprised at the taste of the cake and the smooth vegan cream. This week I could think of nothing else but to improve the original recipe, but I didn't have much to decorate the base, so I kept it simple making a citrus cream, adding some ground chocolate and tangerine. In this version the amount of sugar is much smaller than in the original recipe and the bottom is just as I wanted it to be. Ingredients For the dough: - 180g flour - 180g wholemeal flour - 20g cornstarch - 60g cane sugar - 90g sunflower oil - 120g almond milk - a pinch of salt For the cream: - 400g almond milk - juice of 1 orange - 30g cornstarch - 40g cane sugar - 20g sunflower oil - zest of 1 organic lemon (you could also use the zest of an orange, that would be even better) - a pinch of vanilla sugar - a pinch of turmeric - a pinch of salt To decorate: - 5 tangerines - ground pure chocolate, to taste Start by making the dough for the bottom of the crostata. In a bowl, mix the two kinds of flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt. Add the sunflower oil and almond milk. Give it a good stir and knead the dough well with your hands, until it is smooth and not too soft. Wrap it in clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, make the cream: put the cornstarch, salt, turmeric and vanilla sugar in a little pan and add a bit of the almond milk while stirring with a spoon, to make a smooth paste. Stir in the rest of the almond milk, the orange juice, sunflower oil, cane sugar and citrus zest. Bring to a boil and let it simmer over low heat, while constantly stirring with a wooden spoon. At one point you'll notice yelly-ish lumps start forming, after which the consistency will change from liquid to a smooth cream. When it has the right consistency (smooth, not too thin), remove from heat and transfer to a bowl. Set aside and stir it every now and then, or it will harden too much. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Take the dough from the fridge and roll it out with a rolling pin between two sheets of baking paper until you have a piece big enough to cover the tart tin (I used one of 28cm). The dough shouldn't be thicker than a couple of millimetres. Grease the tart tin with some oil and cover with the dough you rolled out. With your fingertips, press the dough into the 'corners' of the tin in order to make it fit well. With the rolling pin, remove the excess of dough from the borders. Make little holes into the bottom with a fork and cover with a sheet of baking paper, onto which you'll add some rice or dried legumes for blind baking. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then remove the baking paper and rice and bake for another 15 minutes, until the crust has

a nice golden colour. Take it out of the oven and let it cool, after which you can add the cream. Level with a spatula and add the amount of ground chocolate you like. Decorate with tangerine segments. Enjoy!