Lyonnaise Pink Praline Tart ~ Vegan, No-Bake, Gluten-Free

Lyonnaise Pink Praline Tart ~ Vegan, No-Bake, Gluten-Free

Patisserie cake shops are situated all over the France. No matter where you are. You’ll easily find a cake shop near you.  Their pastry, chocolate, cake, sweets, glistening glacé fruit, and the most delicate macaroons.

This fascinating really captures my interest when I have a holiday in the South of France. Wherever you go in Lyon’s old town or tourist visiting a place. You’ll find this pinky tart everywhere!

Lyon gastronomy not only the cured sausages and the seafood is also famous for desserts and sweets. Lyon enjoys quite simple desserts, which are quite easy to cook.

The sweet specialty from the Lyon area is ‘praline’ which are made of almonds wrapped with cooked sugar and pink food colouring. This hard sweet is said to have been created by Clément Jaluzot, who was the chef of a 17^thcentury French Marshall called Plessis-Praline, giving his name to pralines!

In the Lyon area, they are well-known and appreciated. You can eat them by themselves or use them to decorate cakes and tarts such as the famous ‘Tarte aux pralines’ (pralines tart) or ‘brioche aux pralines’ (pralines brioche). This last one is quite famous around Lyon thanks to Auguste Pralus, a sweet maker from Roanne, a city located 80 kilometers to the North-West of Lyon. Auguste Pralus (whose name looks and sounds like “praline”), created “brioche aux pralines” as’ Pauline’ in 1955: a play on words built around his own name and the name of the sweet!

You can find more information from here.

Here is the traditional praline tart that I saw in Lyon. How beautiful they are!

I bought this ready-made praline, and tune out vegan version when I came back home!

Lyonnaise Pink Praline Tart ~ Vegan Version, No-Bake, Gluten-Free

Ingredient: 

For the Crust:

• 1/2 cup of Raw almond
• 1/2 cup Medjool dates, pitted
• 1 1/2 cup Rolled oats, perfectly gluten-free
• 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Coconut oil

For the filling: 

• 1 can of Full-fat Coconut milk
• 1 cup Pink Praline, crushed  (can reserve 1 tbsp for topping)
• 1/2 tsp Agar Agar

Method: 

1. Make the crust: Put all the ingredients (except the coconut oil) in the high-power blender (Vitamix) or old-fashion food processor. I use my old food processor, so I just process the ingredients in a small amount at a time. Until the nuts, dates, and oats are the fine form (but not really too fine of mine). Then add the melted coconut oil and blend again until they all come together like a dough.
2. Press down into a prepared tart tin evenly. Mine just press on the bottom not going up to the side.
3. Make the filling: Put the coconut milk in a small saucepan over medium heat, add the crushed pink praline. Stir constantly, sprinkle the agar and mix until well incorporated. Cook until the mixture reduced to half quantity. Off heat. Let it cool down for around 5 minutes. Pour over the tart base. You can sprinkle some pralines left over on top. Leave until set. Or chill in the fridge before serve.

Note: 

• For non-vegan, you can use the thick cream or double cream instead of the coconut milk. And use the sweet shortcrust pastry for the base.
• In Lyon, I saw some the cake shops use the puff pastry for the base as well. So, whichever you like. Enjoy!