Goat Cheese, Red Onion & Cranberry Tarts

Goat cheese tart, a must have for any occasion, add cranberry and balsamic onions and it sits well on a festive table!

 Light pastry using St Helens Farm Butter (click the link to find their website) holds the perfect mix of St Helens Farm Mature goat cheese, sweet of cranberry sauce and the sharp balsamic red onion equals the perfect festive bite.

  With a recipe as easy to bake as this one, you’ll be getting your ‘tart on’ for every celebration and its well worth it!

I love my recipe for the balsamic onions, but if you’re short on time, don’t let that stop you making these tarts. There are so many tasty jars of caramelised onions on the shelves in supermarkets , so find your favourite to use. A jar or two can always be found in my pantry to use when i need to infuse flavour into these and other things too.

Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!

Ready to eat

What You Need

 Pastry

•   200g Plain Flour plus more for dusting

• 100g St Helens Farm Butter – Cold and cut into small cubes – See Tip Box

• Pinch of Salt

• 2-3 Tbsp Cold Water – See Tip Box

I used the unique flavour of St Helens farm Mature Cheese

 Filling

•      200ml St Helens Farm Full Fat Milk

• 175g St Helens Farm Mature Goats Cheese

•     5 Large Eggs

•     1 Medium Red Onion – Finely Chopped

•    1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

•    1 Jar Cranberry Sauce or Jelly

•    Oil for frying

• Salt to taste

• Pepper to taste

Chop the onions small but keep them chunky enough for texture.

   How It’s Done

Pastry

•   Tip the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and give it a mix

• By Hand - If making the pastry by hand, add the cold butter to the flour and using two blunt knifes or a pastry cutter, ‘cut’ the butter into the flour until what’s left looks like fine breadcrumbs – See Tip Box

•    Add the cold water and continue to mix with the blunt knife until it starts to come together into a ball.

•  Use hands to bring the dough into a ball.

•   Wrap the dough in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

• By Machine - If making the pastry in a food processor, place the flour and salt into the machine and, while the machine is running, add the butter, piece by piece, until it looks like breadcrumbs.

• Drizzle in the cold water, until the dough comes together into a ball before wrapping in cling film and letting it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

• While the pastry is resting prepare the tins.

• Heat the oven to 180c.

• Prepare the tins – Coat the inside of small tart tins with St Helens Farm butter, then dust the inside of the tin with flour making sure to tap out any excess flour

• Set the tins aside until needed

•    Sprinkle the rolling pin and the worksurface lightly with flour – See Tip Box

• Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out the dough to about 5cm thickness.

• Use a round cutter to cut out the pastry to fit the prepared tins, leaving an overhang of around ¼ inch

•     Set the tins onto a baking sheet.

• Press the dough into the corners of the tin using a lump of leftover pastry, don’t trim off the edges.

•     Chill in the fridge for 30 mins.

•   Heat oven to 180c.

•   Remove the tins from the fridge and cover each tin with non-stick baking parchment.

•    Pour baking beans into each tin and put the tray of tart tins into the hot oven to bake for 10-12 minutes until the bottom of the pastry is firm- See Tip Box

• Remove the baking beans and baking parchment from the tins and return them to the hot oven to carry on baking until the bases of the tarts are dry and firm to touch – Approx.: 10 minutes

• Once removed from the oven, use a small sharp knife to carefully trim off the excess pastry, and set the tarts aside until the filling is ready – See Tip Box

•     Leave the tins on the baking tray.

Fork the bottom before setting in the fridge to cool before the bind bak.

Filling

•     Spoon a little of the cranberry sauce into each of the pastry case and set aside

• Place the oil in a frying pan, add the sliced onions and on a medium heat, fry gently for around 8 minutes until soft and translucent.

•    Add the balsamic vinegar, give it a stir and cook for a further 2 minutes.

•    Distribute onions between the cooked pastry cases.

Layer up the ingredients

• Share the grated goat cheese on top of the onions

• Crack the eggs and milk into a bowl, season with salt and pepper and then beat until everything is mixed together.

•   Place the tray on a shelf in the hot oven and gently pour the egg mixture into each of the tart cases – See Tip Box

•       Bake in the hot oven for 25 minutes until golden brown and firm to touch.

Thin pastry surrounding a cheesy festive filling.

Tip Box

•       Keep it cold – Use butter straight from the fridge and cold water to keep the pastry mix cool while you work.

• Cutting in – ‘Cutting in’ is a term used to mix fat into flour without using hands. Keeping the pastry as cold as possible, helps pastry stay cold too which in turn helps to keep the pastry light.

• Rolling out - Use as little flour as needed when rolling out the pastry. Too much will dry out the pastry and make the end result tuff, so be careful not to use too much.

• Blind bake –1) Blind baking the tart pastry before adding the filling, stops the tart having a soggy bottom.

2) If you don’t have baking beans, use uncooked rice or pasta, then keep them to use another time.

•     Trim the pastry - Trimming the edge of the tart after the blind bake gives you a neater edge with less shrinkage.

Serve hot or cold