Individual cheese & tomato tarts are simple to make. Using oven roasted tomatoes and the cheese of your choice they make a great meal, served with a side of green salad.
Individual cheese and tomato tarts make a delicious meal. Aside from the time needed to rest the pastry, they are relatively simple and straight forward to make. Indeed if time is short you can always buy a good quality ready-made shortcrust pastry.
These tarts have been made using brie, but you can use other cheese if you prefer. We’ve make these tarts using our own Oven Roasted Tomatoes, which as well as being delicious are really easy to make. However if you don’t have time substitute with shop bought sunblush tomatoes. Using a classic combination of cheese and tomato these tarts are delicious, however you can easily substitute with other flavours. Blue cheese with thyme; gruyere with smoked ham or cheddar cheese with spring onion would all work well together.
Tarts are a great make ahead dish and you can either make individual tarts or one bit one. (Just make sure you increase baking time if making a larger flan). As they can be eaten hot or cold, they make a great addition to a picnic.
If you like this recipe then try our Tomato Risotto, our Ravioli Caprese or our Tomato & Tarragon Bruchetta.
Individual Cheese & Tomato Tarts
Ingredients
Shortcrust Pastry
- 280 g plain flour
- 110 g unsalted butter - cold and cubed
- 1 medium egg - beaten with the addition of 1 tbsp cold water
- 1 large pinch salt
Filling
- 50 g butter
- 1 leek - sliced
- 1 clove garlic - crushed
- 120 g brie - cubed
- 36 oven roasted tomatoes - 12 cut up/12 left whole
- 6 egg yolks
- 4 tbsp creme fraiche
- salt & pepper
Instructions
Shortcrust Pastry
- Place the flour, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse to a breadcrumb consistency. Gradually add the egg mixture and continue to pulse until the dough forms a ball. Remove and form into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Remove the pastry from the fridge, place on a lightly floured surface. Using a rolling pin gently roll out the dough, turning it a quarter turn until you have a nice thin dough, approximately 3mm. Cut the pastry to the required size for the tray (our trays were 12cm diameteand gently line the tin, lightly pressing the dough into the edges of the pan, we like to use a small amount of excess pastry to do this. Prick the base of the pastry all over with a fork and return the the pastry shells to the fridge for 20 minutes, this will avoid the pastry shrinking during baking.
- Remove the pastry shells from the fridge, line with greaseproof paper and baking beans. Blind bake the pastry shells in a pre-heated oven at 180C fan for 10 minutes. Take out of the oven and remove the baking beans and paper liner and return the shells to the oven for a further 2 minutes to allow then to colour. Remove the shells from the oven and set aside until your are ready to fill.
Filling
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the leeks and garlic and saute gently over a low-medium heat for 15 minutes allowing the leeks to soften but not colour. Season the leek mixture with salt and pepper then stir in creme fraiche, egg yolks, chopped tomatoes, most of the cheese (leave some pieces to decorate top). Stir well well to combine then share the mixture across each of the 6 pastry shells.
- Decorate each tart with 3 whole tomatoes and some of the cubed brie. Return to the oven for 12-15 minutes until the filling has set to the touch.
- These tarts can be served hot or cold.
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