Miniature forms of anything around us are always attractive and win one’s heart quickly. The same applies for the food and I am not an exception here. When I first came to know about the miniature form of tarts, known as ‘tartlets’, it turned me on instantly and the adoration grew over the days. Among the various types of tartlets, the fruit tartlet could be a great dessert, while the savoury ones serve the purpose of tempting snacks. In fact in one of my earlier posts, I shared with you the recipe of Cherry tomato & poppy seed tartlets. No one on earth can dislike the cheesy filling of savoury tartlets. Although different cheese can be used for the filling, as the name reveals I used blue cheese in this recipe. Make these tartlets to surprise your guests and I bet they will enjoy it and end up licking their leaps 🙂

Ingredients to serve 12 :

For Pastry :

1. Plain flour – 250 gm.
2. Pinch of salt
3. Butter (cold, cut into pieces) – 100 gm. + extra for greasing
4. Walnut halves (chopped in a food processor) – 40 gm.
5. Cold water

For Filling :

1. Butter – 2 tbspoon
2. Celery stalks (trimmed and finely chopped) – 2
3. Leek (small, trimmed and finely chopped) – 1
4. Double cream – 200 ml. + 2 tbspoon extra
5. Blue cheese – 200 gm.
6. Egg yolks – 3
7. Salt and pepper
8. Chopped fresh Parsley, to garnish

Procedure :

Lightly grease a 7.5 cm./3 inch, 12-cup muffin tin.

Shift the flour and salt into a food processor,  add the butter  and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Tip the mixture into a bowl. Add the walnuts and enough cold water (I used 3 tbspoon) to bring the dough together.

Now divide the dough into 12 equal parts and roll them out, on a floured work surface, into 12 cm./4½ inch diameter circles. [Alternatively cut the dough in half. Roll out the first piece and cut out six 9 cm/3½ inch circles. Roll out each circles to a 12 cm./4½ inch diameter. Repeat the process with the remaining dough.] I followed the first procedure.

Now press these circles into the muffin cups and prick with a fork.

Cover the whole muffin tin with a piece of clingfilm and put it into the freezer for 15 minutes. [This time I didn’t put any piece of baking paper and dried beans in the cups as I did in case of Cherry tomato & poppy seed tartlets.]

Then bake in a preheated oven, 200ºC/400ºF, for 10 minutes. Take out the muffin tin and leave the oven on.

To make the filling, melt the butter in a frying pan, add the celery and leek and cook for 15 minutes, until soft. Add 2 tbspoon of double cream and crumble in the blue cheese. Mix well and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bring the remaining cream to simmering point in a separate pan, then pour onto the egg yolks, stirring. Mix in the blue cheese mixture with the egg mixture, spoon into the tart/pastry cases.

Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the tin round in the oven and bake for a further 5 minutes.

Cool in the tin for 5 minutes and sprinkle with parsley.

Serve hot.

 Note :

1. Don’t make a soft pastry dough otherwise the crust of the tartlets will not be crunchy.