Mini Buttermilk Biscuit Tarts with Almond Custard & Fruit

Hello, friends! Happy Saturday!

This is a combination of a braggy post with an informational post. I made these scrumptious little treats this morning.

Braggy part: I didn't have a recipe, but that is becoming a more common occurrence as I expand my cooking experience.
Informational part: I won't be sharing everything with you (a girl must have her secrets), but I will share these sweets with you because I love you. :)

Ingredients:
- Trader Joe's Refrigerated Pop-N-Fresh Buttermilk biscuits
 

[it is so rare that I can use a packaged mix or pre-prepared food that I hope you'll pardon the use of such things in this recipe. I know that I hate when I am searching for a recipe, and it says "easy one bowl cake!" and the first ingredient is "boxed cake mix"... that isn't from scratch, guys. But these biscuits are soy free and the ease of baking them is so novel to me. Just give me this one, k?]

- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2T cornstarch
- teaspoon almond extract
- cup of almond milk
- fresh or frozen fruit of choice (I used frozen, which may explain the extra juices that bubbled up in these tasty treats)

Custard:
2. In a medium pot over medium heat, whisk together sugar & corn starch. Add almond extract and almond milk.
3. Stir until thickened and bubbly. Turn heat down to low and continue to stir for another minute or so. Take the pot off the stove and temper your egg yolk by whisking some of the hot mixture into it. Then add warmed yolk + custard back to the custard in the pot and whisk vigorously, keeping the egg yolk from scrambling. Return pot to low heat, simmer and stirring constantly for another minute or two. Set aside finished custard.

Fruit:
1. Slice, pit, or otherwise prepare fruit to be put in the custard tarts. I used frozen strawberries and frozen cherries.

Biscuit prep:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit (as per directions on pop-n-fresh can)
2. Lightly grease nonstick muffin tin.
3. Pop open that can-o-biscuits. Try to avoid screaming. I'm still working on that step.
4. Split each of the 8 biscuits in half (so you have two short biscuits circles rather than one tall one.

Assembly:
1. Stretch and work the biscuit dough so that it fits like a pie crust, covering the bottom and sides of each muffin mold.
2. Whisk the custard that's been sitting for a while to make sure it's a smooth texture. Spoon about a tablespoon of custard into each mini pie crust.
3. Place fruit of choice on custard. It will sink into your custard a bit, but that's a good thing.
4. Bake for 16-18 minutes (until the biscuit crust is golden brown.
5. Cool for 10 or 15 minutes and then remove from muffin tin.
6. Refrigerate to chill custard.
7. Enjoy your culinary experience!

p.s. - these things are only 3 WW points (new system) each. So it's a totally justifiable snack.

Cinnamon Pie

I was watching Psych the other day. Shawn and Gus go to the town of Dual Spires to solve a murder per usual, etc, etc, but the point that stuck with me was the cinnamon pie they kept eating. I was so excited that I paused the episode halfway through to google cinnamon pie recipes. I didn't find anything satisfying, so no pie was made.

I was disappointed with this result, but days later the thought was still nagging me. I really, really wanted some cinnamon pie. Back to the internet I went. I looked and looked for a recipe that seemed yummy to me, but once again, I came up empty handed and, thus, empty stomached.

So I made one up today.

I just had a slice and ohmygoodness it is so good. You have to like cinnamon and you have to like delicious desserts, but this is awesome. And I'm going to share my awesome brainchild because you deserve to have deliciousness in your life, too!

Ingredients:
     Filling:
          2 Tbsp butter
          3/4 cup white sugar
          1 cup brown sugar (not packed)
          2 Tbsp flour
          1 cup almond milk
          4 eggs
          4 Tbsp cinnamon (this is a rough estimate, I just dumped a whole bunch in because I love the stuff)
          1 Tbsp vanilla

     Topping:
          1/4 cup flour
          1/2 cup oats
          1/2 stick butter
          2 Tbsp brown sugar (not packed... because who packs tablespoons?)
          2 Tbsp cinnamon

Prep:
- Preheat oven to 375
- Grease and sugar pan*
- Thoroughly beat all filling ingredients together. Batter will be liquid with some chunks of butter floating around if you didn't melt the butter prior to mixing. I didn't melt mine and I'm not sure what melting it would do. Probably nothing, but I have no data to support any theory.
- Pour in pan
- To make the topping, chop your butter into bits and then combine it with all the other stuff. I use my fingers and mush it.
- Top pie with streusel. It's going to partially submerge and you won't be able to spread it around, so you have to sprinkle it around carefully. (Or, in my case, sorta carefully until you get impatient and start dumping it.)
- Bake for 45 minutes. If it starts to burn before it sets, cover it in foil. I didn't have this problem; it was perfectly done after 45 minutes. 

* You could probably use nonstick spray, too, but I'm allergic to that stuff. Actually, you probably don't need to grease the pan given the consistency of the pie, but I hate when desserts are cemented to the pan and you lose edible deliciousness. Skip greasing at your own risk of less fatteningness.

N.B. - I know I called this a pie and then neglected to include crust. I decided to put my calories towards a delicious streusel topping rather than a plain ol' crust, so that's why that happened.

p.s. - I apologize to all of my celiac and otherwise gluten intolerant friends that this would be a no-go for you. Maybe you can tweak it a bit and still have cinnamon bliss?