Mango Pies, I mean Tarts

A few days ago, I finally got my copy of "The Adobo Road", a newly published cookbook by Filipino American foodblogger Marvin Gapultos (of Burnt Lumpia fame). I was so excited leafing through the pages and thought I would try out a few of his recipes for Mother's Day. My brother and sister thought we should do a potluck for our mom so she wouldn't have to cook. I had my eyes set on a main dish and a dessert involving mangoes...

This case of sweet Manila Mangoes (ironically grown in Mexico, although they did come over FROM the Philippines many years ago due to the Manila Acapulco Galleon Trade. This box was about $10 at Seafood City and well worth it...

I wanted to try a new dessert recipe, but...

it didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. The blame lies on me since I didn't follow the instructions to the "T" and therefore improvised with what little time I had this afternoon.

Below, the cover of Marvin's new book, which is chockful of amazingly mouthwatering photos that he took himself, as well as dishes that he styled himself.

These are the main ingredients...(missing in action was dark rum):

I thought it would be fun to slice up a mango half this way. TC enjoyed eating it as well! The calamansis were also from Seafood City ($2.75 for a medium sized styofoam tray). Our calamansi tree is tapped out already, so I had to resort to buying these rather small specimens. I may have to hit up my

I diced these suckers up myself. The mangos and other ingredients were warmed up in a sauce pan. I thought I'd made this overnight and just assemble the pies the next day (which was today).

Fail number one - since I didn't want to make my own pie crust (which Marvin's recipe calls for), I used Trader Joe's pie crust. Well, I thought it would be thawed out enough by today (since I placed it in the fridge from the freezer last night), but it wasn't plieable and didn't come out in one piece.

What did I do instead? I didn't want to go to my mom's emptyhanded (sans dessert actually), so I improvised and balled up the pie crust dough so I could make individual tiny tarts instead.

Another thing I didn't consider was that the original size of the dice was intended for the "turnovers" or empanadas in Marvin's cookbook. I ended up having to cut up the mango pieces even smaller so that the mini tarts would be more evenly filled (instead of having one big cube in it). I also sprinkled a little more brown sugar on top.

Baked at 375F for about 35 minutes (I had to keep checking so it wouldn't get too burnt).

They don't look too pretty, but they did taste good!

I will have to make it the "real" way next time which means making my own pastry dough and also using rum and not making it in tart form!

The complete recipe can be found on page 122 of "The Adobo Road" by Marvin Gapultos (Tuttle Publishing, 2013).  A book review will be forthcoming, once I try out his other recipes like Bacon and Mushroom Adobo, Glazed Roasted Spam (YES!), and Filipino Garlic Sausage Patties.

Not content to "just bring one" item, I made two other dishes along with dessert. Those posts coming right up...