Roasted Sweet Onion, Pear and Goat's Cheese Tart
Roasted Sweet Onion, Pear and Goat's Cheese Tart
With Apple & Horseradish Sauce
Servings: 8 slices or 12 as an appetizer
Preparation Time: 30 mins
Cooking Time: 1 hr 50 mins
Chill Time: 30 mins
This is a Guest Recipe by Trish from In Fine Balance Foodblog.
An impressive and savory tart with sweet roasted onions and pears in a creamy goat cheese filling.
Served with Apple and Horseradish Sauce (Recipe below)
and Pan Fried Apple and Beetroot with
new potatoes and broccoli.
Alternatively, you could serve this as a starter.
Ingredients
for the crust
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole-wheat flour (whole wheat pastry flour is best)
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 –6 tablespoons ice water
for the filling
1 average sized sweet onion such as Vidalia, quartered, skins left on
1 average sweet pear peeled and sliced into thin strips, about 12-16 slices.
olive oil for drizzling over onions
6 oz soft goat cheese
1 large egg
1/2 cup sour cream (I used Vegan Cream)
2 teaspoons fresh savoury sage or thyme would also work nicely
salt and pepper to taste
AND THIS IS WHAT YOU DO....
for the crust
- In the bowl of a food processor, add flours, sugar, salt and pulse to combine.
- Using the pulse function, add olive oil one tablespoon at a time, pulsing a few times after each addition, until mixture becomes crumbly and coarse.
- Now do the same with the ice water, adding 4 tablespoons of the ice water and continue to pulse until large clumps of dough form and no powdery bits remain, about 5 seconds.
- Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of water only if the dough still seems to be dry and is not clumping together.
- Again, only 1 tablespoon at a time and pulse a few times after each addition. This is a soft dough, it will not form a ball, but should stick together in small bits when you press some together with your fingers. (At this point, you could store dough, covered tightly in plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for 2 days or freezer for up to 4 weeks)
- Dump dough into a 9-in tart pan with a removable bottom. Using your fingers push dough evenly over bottom and up the sides of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap. If needed, smooth the dough through the plastic wrap to even out any bumps. Place tart shell on a baking tray and freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 180C / 375F.
- Remove plastic wrap from frozen tart and prick surface with a fork all over. This will prevent any air bubbles from puffing up the crust.
- Ensure to prick the sides in several places as well. Cover tart with heavy aluminum foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans (that you use only for baking pies).
- Bake on the middle rack for 30-40 minutes or until shell is golden brown and set. Allow to cool completely before filling and using. At this stage tart shell will keep at room temperature for 2 days.
- for the filling
- Preheat oven to 200C / 400F.
- Prepare onions by dusting off any dirt, cutting into quarters and placing on baking tray. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake until soft and slightly browned at the edges 30-40 minutes, depending on the size of the onions.
- Remove from oven and once cool enough to handle, remove tough outer layers and slice the soft remaining inside layers into slivers.
- For pears, peel and slice pears and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
- Add to the oven with the onions but watch carefully. Pears will be soft and fragrant after about 20 minutes. Don't let them dry out and burn.
- Remove from oven and remove any browned bits (often at the tops of the pears where the slices are narrow and thin).
to assemble tart
- Preheat oven to 200C / 400F.
- In a medium bowl mash goat cheese until very soft and smooth.
- Add sour cream and egg and beat to combine.
- Add salt, pepper and fresh herbs.
- Spread evenly on bottom of pre-baked tart shell.
- Arrange onion slivers in a fan pattern around the tart, on top of the goat cheese mixture.
- Arrange pears in between the onion slices, evenly around the tart, 3-4 slices per quarter of pie.
- Bake at 200C/400F for about 30 minutes or until goat cheese has puffed up and browned. You may need to cover with foil before the end of cooking to protect from scorching.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
- Can be made a day ahead. Bring back to room temperature before serving.
Apple and Horseradish Sauce
Serves 4
Preparation and Cooking Time: c.40 mins
Ingredients:
- 2 Bramley cooking apples, cored, peeled and diced
- 1-3 cloves
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 100g horseradish, grated or I used a couple teaspoons of creamed horseradish sauce
AND THIS IS WHAT YOU DO....
- Place the apples in a saucepan with the cloves, sugar and 50ml of water.
- Cook gently, stirring occasionally until the apple has collapsed. Add the lemon juice and finely grated horseradish.
- Transfer to a small serving dish.