French Onion Tartlets

At our recent dinner party, I wanted to greet the guests with a bubbly drink and a little nosh. One of the nosh items was something I came up, sort of on the fly. I played around with making an onion & sage tart, but I just wasn't feeling it. Being a French themed dinner, I also really wanted onion soup, but didn't want to go over board on the. What if...I could make incorporate the two?

French Onion Tartlets!!!

I started with two large sweet onions. They were diced and tossed in a non-stick skillet with butter, thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Cook slow and low for about 45 minutes. The onions will caramelize and reduce down.

After the onions cooked down, I added a quarter cup of a dry white wine. I allowed that to mix in and simmer do to nothing. Next was some apple juice--I'd have preferred cider, but I didn't have it. Simmer that down to nothing. Finally I added some beef stock and simmered that down, about 1/2 cup. You don't want this to actually be soup. A nice thick consistency will be best. Once I had the consistency I wanted, I stirred in a tablespoon of cider vinegar. At the moment, that seemed like a mistake, but the vinegar made the flavors pop later on! I placed the mixture into a bowl and kept it in the fridge for about 3 days before I continued the tartlets the day of the dinner party.


Now...how to make the tarts? Use the recipe here, roll out and cut into small circles with a biscuit cutter, about 2-2 1/2 inch diameter...it might have been 3 inches??? Carefully place the circles into a mini-muffin tins. I forgot, but you should prick the pastry with a fork. You'll need to bake these in the oven for about 15 minutes...350 degrees. They will be puffy and golden brown. Allow to cool.

Each tart shell took about 1 full teaspoon of the onion mixture. I topped each tartlet with a small bit of shredded mozzarella. I would have preferred Gruyere, but I forgot to get some at the store. Put them back in the oven, 350 again, for about 10-15 minutes. This allowed the onion mixture to heat back up and the cheese to melt.

These were tasty little devils. I made enough for at least 12 people, but the 6 of us finished almost all of them off!!! Serve them hot and with a glass of wine. Enjoy.

Pee Cans / Pea Kahns

Simple Dessert from Tuesday Night!


Pecan Pie Tart

adapted from Cooks.com

1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick, softened)
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/8 tsp salt (pinch)
1 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 TB butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt (pinch)
2 eggs
1 cup broken pecans
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale yellow. Mix vanilla, salt and egg together until well blended.

2. Stir in flour. Mix well.

3. Press dough in the bottom (& sides) of a 9 1/2 inch tart pan. Flour fingers if dough is too sticky.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until edges are browned.

5. Combine brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, salt and butter. Beat well. Add eggs and combine.

6. Stir in pecans.

7. Place pre-baked crust/tart pan into a rimmed baking sheet to collect spills if they happen. Pour sugar/egg/pecan mixture over crust. Sprinkle with the mini chocolate chips.

8. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until set. Loosen edges from side of pan while warm. Cool completely. Cut into serving pieces. Cover and refrigerate leftovers.

YUM! This was a great, fast dessert. The crust had some great flavor and thrown together in just a few minutes. The filling was sweet, but not coyingly sweet. The only thing missing was a little creme sauce or scoop of ice cream. Next time I will get some bourbon in there somewhere...Ohhh, bourbon ice cream? Oh that would nice!!!!