Individual Savory Apple, Blue Cheese & Walnut Tarts

We’ve found that by using puff pastry your dishes can look more professional. Take for instance this Provencal Tomato Tart that we made last summer when juicy vine-ripened tomatoes were in season, served atop puff pastry and can be found here.

Today we’ve made individual savory puff pastry tarts with apples, blue cheese, and walnuts, served for a light lunch with a green salad tossed with a tart lemony vinaigrette (recipe here) & a few grape tomatoes thrown in for color. This savory apple tart would also make a nice starter dish for dinner. We’ve found that guests really like it when they get their own individual tart made just for them.

This apple tart recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks – The Lazy Gourmet, Magnificent Meals Made Easy by Robin Donovan & Juliana Gallin. It’s a cookbook I often turn to for sophisticated recipes that are also easy. You might remember one of my all time favorite dishes to serve for dinner guests - Baked Chicken with Lemons & Olives, which can be found here. Well it happens to be from The Lazy Gourmet too. I recently served it for a small family reunion at our home the week prior to Easter and it was a big hit. One of the best things about this recipe is that the crispy potato wedges bake alongside the chicken at the same temperature and the same cooking time. That alone makes life a whole lot easier for the cook.

The authors suggest several different combinations you might try. What if you substituted figs, apricots or pears for the apple and used Gruyere, a sharp Cheddar, or Manchego in lieu of the blue cheese. Or you could turn this dish into a dessert by using ricotta in place of the blue cheese and omitting the black pepper. Let you imagination be your guide in creating your own individual tarts.

This tart is best served right out of the oven, but if you want to make it ahead an hour or so (or happen to have leftovers), the tarts can be re-heated in a 400 degrees F oven until heated through, about 5 minutes.

Individual Savory Apple, Blue Cheese & Walnut Tarts
Very slightly adapted from The Lazy Gourmet, Magnificent Meals Made Easy by Robin Donovan & Juliana Gallin, makes 4 individual tarts
Printable Recipe

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, defrosted
A bit of flour for your board
1 medium sweet tart apple, such as a Pink Lady, also known as a Cripps Pink, quartered, cored & sliced into 1/8” thick slices (I used a Cripps Pink, but a Honeycrisp or a Fuji are also excellent)
4 ounces Cambozola (a cheese that’s a combination of a French soft-ripened triple cream & Italian Gorgonzola), or other mild blue cheese of your choice, thinly sliced or crumbled
¼ cup chopped walnuts
1 tablespoon honey
Freshly ground black pepper
Beaten egg (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet.

Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Cut sheet into 4 squares and place on the prepared baking sheet. Prick the dough with a fork to release steam and prevent it from puffing up, taking care not to prick the 1” outer edge because you want that outer edge to puff up.

Lay 4 apple slices, slightly overlapping in the center of the square. (You may have a few apple slices left over as a cook’s treat.) Follow with the cheese, then the chopped walnuts, a drizzle of honey and lastly a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper over each tart. If you desire a nice brown glaze on the tart, brush the outer edges with a beaten egg as a final step.

Bake the tart in a preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until pastry is golden brown and nicely puffed up around the edge. Serve warm.

Cook’s note: The tart is best served warm out of the oven. However, it can be made ahead a couple of hours and reheated in a 400 degree F oven for about 5 minutes, until reheated.

For better viewing click photos to enlarge

I will be sharing this dish with Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farms and Miz Helen’s Country Kitchen’s Full Plate Thursday.

Thank you for visiting My Carolina Kitchen

& we hope you have a nice weekend.

Heirloom Tomato Tart - two different versions

I just can’t seem to get my fill of the wonderful heirloom tomatoes this summer. Bear with me for one more tomato post. I’m beginning to believe tomatoes may be my all time favorite food, even surpassing my love of wild-caught shrimp.

Since my birthday is this month, instead of a cake I’m celebrating with a tomato tart or pie if you will. I’ve prepared it two different ways. One was baked 9” springform pan and looks more like a deep dish pie than a tart.

In the other one, I’ve used a tart pan and, as you can see, resembles a quiche.  Either way they were delicious.

Any garden fresh red summer tomato is perfect, but if you can find heirloom tomatoes in a couple of different colors, so much the better for appearance sake, as well as the depth of flavor the heirlooms bring. The kalamata olives bring a surprise flavor and the shallots give a little crunch to this.

When I think of savory pies or tarts, I usually associate them with lots of calories and fat primarily coming from heavy cream and lots of cheese. I even have an old recipe that uses mayonnaise. This one from Cooking Light comes in under 300 calories per slice and serves 8. Add a salad and you’ve got a light, delicious summer meat-less meal or serve a slice as an appetizer with drinks.

Heirloom Tomato Tart / Deep Dish Pie
Adapted slightly from Cooking Light – serves 8
Printable Recipe

½ of a 14.1 ounce package refrigerated pie dough
3 heirloom tomatoes, preferably different colors
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray
All purpose flour for rolling the dough
2 ½ ounces (2/3 cup) fontina cheese, grated
½ cup pitted and chopped kalamata olives
1/3 cup peeled and sliced shallots
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped
1 ½ cups 2% reduced-fat milk
1 ½ tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
3 large eggs
Fresh basil leaves for garnish

Bring refrigerated pie dough to room temperature. In the meantime, cut tomatoes into ¼ to ½” thick slices and gently push out the seeds with your fingers. Sprinkle the tomatoes with salt and freshly ground black pepper and place on thick paper towels to drain. Let them drain for about 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For a tart, coat 9” deep-dish tart pan with cooking spray. For a deep dish pie, coat a 9” springform pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle a cutting board or your counter with a little all purpose flour and roll the dough into a 12” circle. Fold the dough in half, then into a quarter for ease of carrying to the prepared pan or roll it around your rolling pin. Carefully press the dough into the pan and crimp the edges. Cut off excess dough in making in a tart pan. Sprinkle the dough with a base of fontina cheese, olives, and shallots, then arrange half of the tomato slices over the base mixture. Combine the flour, cornmeal, and chopped fresh thyme and sprinkle over the first layer of tomatoes. Top with the remaining tomato slices and sprinkle with a little more salt and freshly ground black pepper.

In a bowl, whisk together the milk, grated Parmesan cheese, and eggs, then pour the mixture over the tomatoes. Place the pan on a large sheet pan and bake in the oven for 40 – 50 minutes until set. (The pie in the springform pan will take longer to cook than the one in the tart pan.) Test for doneness by jiggling the pan. It will be done when the filling no longer wiggles. When done, remove from the oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving. Top with small basil leaves. Can be served warm or at room temperature.

This is being linked to Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farms, Miz Helen’s Country Kitchen Full Plate Thursday, Foodie Friday at Simple Recipes, Foodtastic Friday at Not Your Ordinary Recipes, Seasonal Sunday at The Tablescaper, Healthy Mommy, Healthy Baby, Southern Sundays at Slice of Southern, On the Menu Monday at Stone Gable, and Food on Friday at Carole's Chatter.

One year ago - Grilled Thai BBQ Chicken

Two years ago - A trip to Highlands, NC