Cheesecake Tart with Blueberries

Necessity is the mother of invention – this saying yet again proved itself, when it came to this recipe. One day I had some quark (cottage cheese) and some blueberries left and I was thinking how I could use them. The easiest solution – cheesecake - wouldn’t have worked as I didn’t have enough of the cheese so a tart seemed to be a better answer. Sadly, the outcome wasn’t as good as I expected because I found the filling of the tart too grainy.

But a few days later I wanted to give this cake concept another chance and used cream cheese instead of the quark. This time the result was heavenly: a scrumptious tart with melt-in-your-mouth filling that tasted a bit like New York cheesecake but with a bonus – juicy blueberries bursting in your mouth with every bite of this cake.

INGREDIENTS:

Base:

190g plain flour,

130g butter of room temperature (plus a bit extra for greasing),

35ml milk of room temperature,

1 tbsp caster sugar,

1 egg yolk,

pinch of salt,

Filling:

600g cream cheese, *

150ml of double cream,*

3 eggs,*

120g caster sugar,

1 tsp vanilla extract,

100g blueberries.

METHOD:

1. Using a food processor or manually combine quickly all the cake ingredients, form a flattened ball, cover it in cling film and put to a fridge for at least 2 hours.
2. Butter well a bottom and a side of a 26cm-diameter loose-bottom tart tin.
3. Preheat an oven to 220 Celsius degrees (200 for fan ovens).
4. Roll the pastry thinly (best done between 2 sheets of baking paper) and transfer it into the tin.
5. Pierce the pastry with a fork a few times and line it with baking paper, put baking beans on top.
6. Transfer the tin to the hot oven and immediately decrease the temperature to 190 Celsius degrees (170 for fan ovens); bake for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and beans and bake for 5 minutes more.
7. Mix together the cream cheese, cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla extract until combined and smooth.
8. Pour it over the baked base and sprinkle the blueberries on top.
9. Decrease the oven temperature to 150 Celsius degrees (no fan), put the tart to the oven and bake for 40 min.
10. After that time turn off the oven but keep the cake in for 2 hours; afterwards transfer to a fridge.
11. Take it out from the fridge 30 minutes before serving.

* Cream cheese, cream and eggs should be at room temperature.

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Onion Tart with Gluten-Free Pastry Crust [vegetarian]

There is such a huge variety of tart dishes that probably it would be difficult to find somebody who doesn't have at least one favourite. A sweet tart can be a wonderful ending to a meal but a savoury tart can be a meal on its own. And there are possibly endless combinations of ingredient fillings for those different tarts!

The below recipe uses ingredients that can be easily found in probably everybody’s fridges or cupboards and this is a great advantage of this dish from the beginning. Additionally, if you have in your freezer ready-to-use pastry (I sometimes make a double portion of the pastry and keep half of it for later), this tart can be your saviour when there is simply lack of time or dinner ideas! And the fact that it is delicious is just another advantage.

The crust for this tart is gluten-free as I used a soya, corn and rice flour combination instead of wheat flour but obviously the same amount of regular flour (total of 175g) can be used for this recipe. The gluten-free version is a bit more difficult to handle before baking as it breaks easily but I think that an addition of Parmesan cheese makes it look and taste almost like the normal (gluten) pastry once it is baked.

INGREDIENTS (6 portions):

Pastry:

55g soya flour,

60g cornflour,

60g rice flour,

0.25 tsp salt,

75g diced butter,

50g grated Parmesan cheese,

1 egg.

Filling:

5 sliced onions,

1 tbsp rapeseed oil,

0.5 tsp sugar,

3 eggs,

150 ml single cream,

50g Gouda cheese,

0.5 tsp Dijon mustard,

1 tsp salt,

pepper

METHOD:

1. Mix together the three types of flour and salt; put into a food processor, add the butter and process until it resembles fine crumbs.
2. Add the Parmesan cheese and egg and process until everything starts coming together.
3. Make into 2 balls (or 1 if you are making one bigger tart), wrap in a cling film and put into a fridge for at least 30 minutes.
4. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the sliced onions and fry on a medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes stirring occasionally to make sure the onions are golden but not burnt. Towards the end of this process add the seasoning: sugar, 0.5 tsp salt and pepper – according to your taste.
5. Preheat an oven to 200 Celsius degrees (no fan).
6. From a baking paper cut 2 circles (or 1, if you are making one larger tart) the same size as bottoms of loose-bottom tart tins, put the circles into tins. I used two 18cm diameter tins but for this recipe they could be replaced with one 25-26cm diameter tin.
7. Roll the pastry thinly and transfer each one into the tins. Since it is a gluten-free version of pastry it won’t be elastic and may break so you have to be careful when you move it around. If it breaks, you can combine the pieces together with your fingers. If you have time, put the raw tart to the fridge again while you wait for the oven to get hot.
8. Line the pastry with baking paper, put baking beans on top and blind bake in the hot oven for 10 minutes. Remove the paper and beans and bake for 5 minutes more.
9. In a bowl beat together the eggs, cream, 0.5 tsp salt, mustard and pepper; add the grated Gouda cheese and stir.
10. Divide the fried onion into the two baked pastry cases, spread it and pour the egg mixture.
11. Bake the tarts in 160 Celsius degrees (fan oven) for 20-25 minutes until the filling is set and golden. For one bigger tart extend the baking time by 5 minutes.

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