It’s been a very busy few weeks lately with three birthdays, visiting parents, holidays and a kids birthday party. A lot of baking and not so much time to update the blog, but it’s time to rectify that now!
Starting with something savoury in the shape of a cheese tart, which we had for a starter when our parents came round for dinner. The recipe is based on a Swedish recipe for a tart made with Västerbotten cheese – a hard cheese that is somewhat similar to Parmesan. As I wasn’t able to get hold of Västerbotten cheese, I substituted it with Parmesan instead. I have also used 1 part Cheddar cheese and 2 parts Parmesan cheese in the past when making it for a buffet.
In order to save time I decided to go with ready-made pastry, but I have included the ingredients for the pastry below if you want to make it from scratch. The tart ended up a bit on the dark side – it still tasted great, but I should probably have covered it with some tin foil or baking parchment towards the end of the cooking to keep it golden rather than brown.
Allow the tart to cool to room temperature before serving. Serve with a green salad and possibly a dollop of creme fraiche.
Ingredients
Pastry:
300 ml plain flour
125 g cold butter, cubed
2 tbsp cold water
Cheese filling:
3 eggs
200 ml single cream
200 g Västerbottens or Parmesan cheese, coarsely grated
freshly ground black pepper
Pastry
1) Combine flour and the cold butter in your food processor and process until you’ve got coarse crumbs.
2) Add the cold water and process again, until the dough comes together.
3) Flatten the dough into a disc and wrap in clingfilm. Rest in the fridge for 30 – 60 minutes.
4) Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface, large enough to fill a 26 cm tart tin.Transfer the pastry dough into the tin, prick the bottom with a fork.
5) Blind bake in a 200 C oven for about 15 minutes.
Filling
1) Whisk the eggs and cream until combined, then season with pepper (no salt is needed as the cheese is salt enough).
2) Add the grated cheese.
3) Pour into the pastry case and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the filling is set and the tart is golden.
Fika and more 