French Friday:Goat Cheese Tart

Bonjour mes amis!
Aujourd’hui…..Goat Cheese tart!

This is the EASIEST recipe ever! You should definitely make this one.
Before you start whining eeewww…I don’t think I like goat cheese….let me tell you that even the 10 yr old and 14 yr old ate it for breakfast and LOVED it! 
What a great way to sneak in some healthy food and expand their palate!
This is a mild tasting tart. It would be wonderful for a luncheon with a fresh fruit salad. 
Since it is so mild, you can also jazz it up with just about anything…even fruit. Just choose Google images for goat cheese tart and prepare to be amazed. 
Here’s one from a Whole Foods ad


this is a fig and goat cheese version

Allons-y!!
I am using Ina Garten’s recipe from Barefoot in Paris.
Here’s the disclaimer….
I have something important going on today so I had to do this last night. 
The pics are under the kitchen lights so sorry if they are not up to par.
Also, I couldn’t get to it until 9pm so I used my favorite 
(even recommended by Cook’s Illustrated) refrigerated pie crust. 
Pillsbury All Ready piecrust in the refrigerated section (please don’t use frozen).
 If you haven’t tried them, I highly recommend them. 
There are two in a package and they are individually wrapped 
so you can use one and leave the other in the fridge. 
Open the crust up and if you need to roll it a bit( I do to fit this tart pan) 
then make sure you dust the countertop with flour before you lay the crust down. 
Let it warm up for just a minute and then you can roll it as you need. 
It needs to stay cold so don’t do this until you’re ready!


Basic Goat Cheese Tart
I blind baked 9 inch tart shell
3?4 cup chopped shallots
1 Tablespoon butter
1 cup heavy cream
3 extra large eggs
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
Heat butter in small saute pan and cook shallots until tender. Place goat cheese in bowl of food processor and process until crumbly. Add cream, eggs, basil, salt and pepper and process until blended. Scatter shallots over bottom of tart shell and pour cream mixture over all. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes at 350 degrees or until tart is firm in center when shaken and the top is lightly browned. Cool for 10 minutes and serve warm.
(the kids ate it cold this morning and loved it)

For this recipe, we are blind baking the crust. 
I use beans to weight mine but you can use pie weights if you have them.
Yes {sigh} those are garbanzo beans. 
My container of 15 yr old heavy kidney beans is not able to be located.
 I know no one ate them (they’re not that desperate) so I can only think that in a fit of
 “why do I keep this crap I will probably never bake again”……I threw them out.
I found these in the pantry also from a
 “I think I’ll make fresh hummus for the darling children” moment. 
They are very light so I put a flat bottomed pan on top of the beans before I baked it.


Bake and set that aside.
 I did that before I went to the store at 8:45 (!) for the goat cheese and heavy cream.
I went to the produce section first to grab some basil and……what the heck? 
No basil? But two full rows of sage? What is this THANKSGIVING? 
Oh boy…..I will not use dried basil…..I’m going to have to go to another store….tonight……
I grow basil every year but it’s not in yet and now I am irritated. 
I turn around to head to the dairy aisle and spy potted herb plants….AHA!…..
 I had to buy a WHOLE plant to get the basil! sheesh…..That baby is getting planted….
I chose to not look at the price of a GROCERY STORE BASIL PLANT.
Now to the goat cheese. Yes, Ina uses Montrachet and I would too, but there isn’t any. 
They do have an herbed goat cheese however and that’s just fine for tonight. 
She used 10 oz and there are 4 oz packages (at $4.99 a pop) so 8 oz is fine too. 
See, this is how I cook. Baking needs accuracy…..anything after that is up for grabs. 
After 40+ years, I can usually tell which ingredients can be fiddled with and which can’t. 
Can I reduce the cream? Maybe a tiny bit, but not much. 
I only have large eggs and she used extra large. 
I debated adding an extra egg but knew that would make it a bit eggy tasting 
and could mask the goat cheese since I was already shy on that. 
So I chose the biggest looking eggs in my box and left it at 3. 
The difference in volume between 3 extra large eggs and 3 large eggs is minimal.
Heavy cream will thicken on it’s own so I wasn’t worried about a sloppy tart. 
If you were using light cream/half-n-half….I’d add the extra egg. 
But, in this recipe, use the heavy cream. 
The mouth feel you get from the goat cheese and cream is to die for….
trust me on this one.


Gather your ingredients.

Nice basil huh? 
Saute the shallots in 1 tablespoon butter…..

Is there anything prettier than that?

I also decided I was not dragging my Cuisinart out at 9pm 
so I used my handy dandy vintage rotary beater.

I will bet REAL money that les francaise who have been making this tart for a hundred years didn’t have a food processor….it still works fine.
So, beat it all up together until smooth.
Put the shallots on the bottom of the shell and then pour in the
 goat cheese and cream mixture.
 (that sounds yummy right there)

Into the oven.
While you’re waiting, go yell at some kids, transfer a load of laundry into the dryer, 
yell at some kids again and pour a glass of wine…..
 I realized recently that I work approximately 18 hr days 7 days a week. 
I’m “on” from 6:15 am until I go to bed. 
After almost 4 years with no break….I’m ready for a week in Paris I can tell ya!

Looking good!

Mmmmm….yum.
I realize now that i should have dolled it up a bit. 
You’ll see the Google pics and realize how lame this is, but it tastes great!
My tart pan is a little too big so it’s quite thin.
 But it doesn’t affect the taste or appearance. 
See all those lovely flecks of basil? 
My husband ate two pieces interspersed with my comments…
“Do you like it?” “Isn’t it good?” “Can you taste the basil?” “What do you think?”

I’m needy when I create…..

Comments

  1. Sounds AWESOME!!

    Loved your storytelling. You are so fun.

    I can’t wait till your trip, too – just what you are needing!!

    Till then have a gloriously awesome weekend.

  2. So it’s safe to say this is NOT a low fat, low cal meal? LOL May still make it though. I’ve been secretly dying to make the girls eat some goat cheese. They like Feta and that’s even stronger tasting than what’s in this! Looks great!

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