Fennel, Onion & Goats Cheese Tarts
These fennel tarts were part of our 4 course Christmas lunch with family, I promised I wouldn’t photograph the meal and delay the eating of everything but I did make two extra of these tarts which I was able to photograph the following day! Our menu that day was Ceviche, Fennel Tarts, Duck Breast & stuffed Duck Leg served with a cherry sauce and a Casatta dessert to finish. The Duck dish looked so pretty on the plate it took all my will power not to get my camera set up for a photo shoot but it was Christmas day and it was going to about enjoying the food with family and not recording it! I’ll just have to make it again to share with you all.
For those of you who read my previous post on the Bread Bakers Apprentice, my starter dough has been a success and my first sour dough rye bread is baking as we speak so I will post about that soon.
Ingredients – pastry (makes 6 small tarts)
- 110g Butter
- 180g flour
- 1 egg
- salt
Method
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade.
- Grease and flour tart tins.
- Place the flour & butter in a bowl.
- Work the ingredients together until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
- Add the egg and bring dough together.
- Rest dough in fridge for an hour before rolling out.
- Roll out pastry to fit bottom & sides of tins, prick bottom of pastry case.
- Place tart tins onto a baking sheet.
Ingredients – filling
- 1 onion
- 1 large fennel bulb
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, roasted and ground
- 200ml cream
- 2 eggs
- salt & pepper
- Goats cheese with rind
Method
- Thinly slice both onion and fennel bulb and gently saute in a pan with the butter until soft. Allow to cool.
- Add ground fennel seeds and season with salt & pepper.
- Whisk eggs and cream together.
- Fill each tart case with the fennel & onion mix and then pour egg mix over to fill almost to the top.
- Bake in oven at 160 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until the tart is ‘puffed’ and golden like a quiche.
- Slice goats cheese and place a piece on each tart and return to the oven for 5 minutes to allow the cheese to melt slightly.
- Decorate with fennel fern.
Pease Pudding 
Ah! it’s a beauty!! :)) Glad you sneaked the extra tarts for the photo !
Hi-
the tarts look beautiful!
i really like that you topped it with a piece of goats cheese instead of incorporating it into the filling. beautiful!
Thanks for stopping by and you compliments. I just love this goats cheese with rind, it is too good to hide inside a tart! Although a lot of it doesn’t make it to the tart either! It’s a Mt Hector, from Kapiti (NZ Cheese)
Gorgeous! The tarts look so beautiful! 🙂 YUM. 🙂
Beautiful tarts! And that was very kind of you to restrain yourself so your family could eat. My boyfriend has just had to accept that we mainly eat luke-warm food : )
Love the tarts and the Christmas menu sounds absolutely delicious too! I’m sure everyone ejoyed the meal and happy new year.
the simplicity of your photos is breathtaking. ;]
Thank you for the compliment, it has been a year of practice and tantrums learning shutter speed and aps and I still have more to learn :o)
Hi Alli,
That looks tasty! Here’s hoping all goes well with your sourdough starter too. I had one going for six months before it died after being forgotten while I was away on holiday! Hey, I’m keen on your co-hosting idea re. the martini – just email me details.
Beautiful little tarts. I love your presentation.
Beautiful photo.. the fennel is so fragile and lovely!
my next batch of goat cheese is going to be saved to make these gorgeous creations.
lovely savoury tarts. simple presentation but i believe the taste!
Thank you so much for visiting my blog while I was away… I was stunned to find a comment from you!!! The reason being I’ve been coming here often and for a long time now.. but never found the courage to leave a comment! …simply to nice, to perfect… for little me.
Anyways… it is now done.
Wishing you a very happy new year, lots of reasons to laugh and smille… just like that one atop: little goat cheese tartlets! :))
You have a beautiful blog with interesting recipes and lovely photography, I’m glad I found it: http://lacasserolecarree.blogspot.com/
I know just how you feel! I always have to remind myself that not every good food I eat needs to be photographed and shared. 🙂 They do look delightfully delicious though. I’m glad you saved some to share with us. 🙂
Beautiful capture. These sure look and sound delicious
This looks really chic – I can imagine serving these at a private party with chill out music in the background!
Just made this – really great recipe!
Looks amazing!
Yesterday I tried this recipe and was delicious…. but the pictures are not as nice as yours!
Greetings from Spain,
Love the website and the photos. I made the tart and it tasted really good. However, the pastry was a little under cooked. Do you think I simply didn’t cook the tart long enough or should I have cooked the pastry first without the filling in it? Thanks, Sam
Hi Sam, I’m glad you liked the tart. I always cook the whole thing at once without pre cooking the pastry. Im not sure if you made small or one large tart. If you made one large tart rather than smaller ones you would need to cook it longer, maybe another 10 mins. Also depending on your oven you might find it better to cook the tart on a lower shelf so the pastry base receives more heat. Also, if you roll the pastry as thin as you can this will help it to cook through. I hope these tips help if you decide to make them again?