Topless Tarts

15 sticks of butter were lined up on the counter waiting to be used. "You probably didn't expect to become participants in a food blog event when you signed up for this class, did you?" I asked my students. Some looked perplexed, some excited. I haven't followed the food blog events after Sammy was born, but when the Topless Tarts event was posted by Cook Sister, I couldn't resist.

It just so happened that I had 8 people coming to my house to learn to make tarts this Saturday. It was my first time teaching this class and I spent all of Sammy's naps this week preparing my plan of attack. How exactly do you put 8 people though the process of making the dough, rolling it out, and baking 2 savory and 2 sweet tarts all in the matter of 3 and a half hours was a mystery to me at first. But thanks to careful planning it all worked out. We have successfully baked a tomato onion gruyère tart, a spinach mushroom quiche, a pear tart tatin, and 3 apple galettes (they don't technically qualify for this event as they were wearing a bit of dough on their sides, but it was so minimal, most of their sexy apple filling was in full view ;).

As you can imagine, I am simply toast right now from all the baking and cleaning and need to get to bed before it's time to wake up and feed Sammy. But I can stay up just long enough to copy and paste the recipes from my handouts. Here they are:

Illustrated guide to pie and tart dough

Tomato Onion Gruyère Tart

Pear Tart Tatin -- use the link above for the dough, not the outdated link in the recipe itself

Apple Galette

Basic Quiche Recipe

For a 10 inch pre-baked tart shell

3 eggs
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper
3/4 - 1 and 1/2 cups cooked vegetable of your choice (mushrooms, leeks, spinach, etc)
1/4 cup grated gruyere

Preheat the oven to 350F and set a rack in the upper third of the oven. Beet the eggs and cream in a mixing bowl just to combine (do not over-beat). Season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper, and stir in the cooked vegetables. Set a pre-baked tart shell on a cookie sheet. Pour the egg mixture into it, sprinkle with cheese, and carefully transfer it to the upper third of the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until puffed and browned, but still a little quiver remains in the center. Cool for 20 minutes before serving.


Here we are with out sweet creations. Unfortunately, by the time I remembered to take the pictures, the savory tarts were already in our tummies. So technically, they are part of this picture :)