My sister threw me a baby shower the day after Christmas. For most people, working full time and getting ready for Christmas is enough. Throwing a shower for thirty-plus people was a real feat of organization. She managed to pull everything together by planning ahead and being super organized.
The shower was a late afternoon cocktail party. She served three kinds of cocktails: a blue martini garnished with a jelly orange peel, belinis, and a non-alcoholic ginger and blood-orange cooler garnished with a slice of candied ginger.
The food consisted of a bunch of bite-sized appetizers. My favorite was the mini goat cheese tarts, which she made using mini-muffin pans.
Mini Goat Cheese Tarts
8 shallots
2 tablespoons olive oil
12 ounces goat cheese
2 eggs
1 cup cream
Salt and pepper
Pastry dough
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cut shallots in half and slice with the grain. Preheat a medium-sized frying pan over a medium heat. Add olive oil and shallots. Reduce heat to low and allow shallots to caramelize, about 30 minutes. When finished, set aside until the tarts come out of the oven.
Mix goat cheese, eggs, and cream together. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside until tart shells are prepared.
Roll out pastry dough to one-quarter inch thick. Cut dough into one and a half inch circles. Place circles into mini-muffin tins. Par-bake dough for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and add two tablespoons of filling. Return to the oven and bake for an additional five to seven minutes, until filling sets and the crust is golden brown.
Top each mini tart with caramelized shallots.
Serve warm or room temperature.
Makes 24 mini tarts.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Mini Goat Cheese Tarts With Camalized Shallots
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2 comments:
Is that a puff pastry dough?
Yelli - this would be a standard pastry dough (sometimes know as "flaky") and similar to a pie crust. Puff pastry is a layered or laminated dough, which is made in a process similar to croissant dough. Flaky pastry dough has the fat cut into the dough whereas a puff pastry is coated with fat and then folded and rolled. That process is repeated many times and results in a very high rising product - too high to have room for filling in this recipe.
Standard pie crust will work just fine.
Good luck!
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