My special thanks to the famous French baker, Gontran Cherrier, for letting me share his delicious recipe with you.
Parmesan tartlets with red onion & comté cheese
27 April 2021
: Makes 40 mini pastries or 4 single tarts
: 40 min
: 25 min
: 13 hr 40 min
: Easy
It will take you 40 minutes to prepare the 40 mini pastries. If you choose to make 4 individual tarts, it will only take you 20 minutes. Allow one hour for the dough to rise. Marinating the red onions will take you 12 hours or more.
Ingredients
- 150 g of flour Type T55
- 90 g room temperature butter
- 15 g fine semolina
- 45 g parmesan cheese
- 3 g yeast
- 3 g salt
- 1 egg yolk
- 60 g thinly sliced Comté cheese
- 2 medium size red onions
- 10 cl red wine vinegar
- 20 g water
- Freshly ground pepper (optional)
- A few sprigs of fresh thyme
- A mini tart mould
- A rolling pin
Directions
- Step 1 The day before, peel the red onions and cut them in quarters. Separate the “petals”, place them in a bowl and pour the vinegar over them. Stir and marinate for the night.
- Step 2 For the dough: mix the flour, the semolina, the yeast, the grated parmesan cheese, and the salt. Add the softened butter and mix until you get a sort of a semolina, add the egg yolk and 20 g of water. Mix thoroughly, then shape into a ball and place it in the refrigerator for one hour.
- Step 3 Pre-heat the oven to 180°. Strain the onions, set them aside and cover the mini tart moulds with the dough. Stick the tip of a fork all over the dough, place in the oven for 12 minutes. Carefully remove from the oven without getting burnt. Split up the Comté slices into all the moulds and top up with the red onion petals. Try not to overlap them unnecessarily. Add the thyme, a little ground pepper if you like it and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes depending on the size of your tarts. Eat warm or cold.
Posted in 2019 but still a big hit in 2024! You can now find 5 Gontran Cherrier’s stores in France, and nearly 60 in Asia, South America, Saudi Arabia and Australia which offer French classics created with local ingredients selected on site. 😋