Vegetable Tart

Vegetable cakes, tarts, pies and quiches have a long tradition in Europe. In the south of Germany we have onion cake and salt cake, in France varieties of tarts the most famous one being the Quiche Lorraine, in Alsace it is the Tarte Flambée. The UK has an endless variety of them. And there will be no end if I start with the Balkan and south European countries.

The French are very strict about the definition of a quiche. A quiche has a yeast dough or short crust base. The filling is a mix of egg, milk, cheese, sour cream, smoked bacon and onions. The moment you add any additional vegetables, meat or fish it becomes a tart. Even though the rest of the world happily calls it all quiche or pie.

They are quick and easy to make and a wonderful way to use up small left over quantities of vegetables and meat. You can get really creative on your filling. The base for most of these tarts is a yeast dough but during the course of time short crust and puff pastry varieties became also very popular.

In most countries they were made during fall or harvest time. The onion cake for example is usually made and served during the time of the wine harvest and enjoyed with a glass of young wine.

A lot of these cakes and quiches can be baked in wood fired ovens which were traditionally used for baking bread or for example in Italy for pizza. Once all the bread is baked and you stop heating the oven you put in the cake or quiche. This works especially well with yeast based doughs.

I love to make them when I get guests as I can prepare them in advance and then just put them in the oven when the guests arrive. I often make them in individual size using a muffin form. Makes great finger food. And as I said you can easily make them in different flavours so there is the perfect one for every guest. If you add up some fresh salad you have a complete meal.

If I make tarts for parties I always use a short crust base as I don't have to worry about the dough rising any further. I know it can be prevented by putting it into the fridge but unfortunately my fridge is not that big.

For the dough (for 18 individual or two 22cm tarts) I take each 150g plain flour and whole wheat flour, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 levelled teaspoon baking powder, 175g cold butter and 80g egg. I mix all ingredients into a smooth dough. If it is too sticky add a bit of flour, if it is too hard or crumbly add a little bit of ice water to it. Let the dough rest for a minimum of 30 minutes in the fridge.

In the meantime I separate 3 eggs, 60g each. I beat the egg yolks with ½ teaspoon salt and 2 tablespoons water until I have a pale and foamy mass. In a separate bowl I beat the egg whites until they form nice peaks.

I add 50 ml milk, 150 sour cream, 100g grated cheese, like Gruyere or any cheese with a strong flavour, to the egg yolks and mix it well. Than I carefully pour the milk-egg mixture over the egg whites and carefully mix it with a spoon.

I pre-heat the oven to 175°C and grease 18 muffin forms. After taking the dough out of the fridge I roll it on a flour coated surface til it is about 3-4mm thick. With a round cookie cutter I cut the base of the tarts and put them in the muffin forms. For the side of the crust I roll the dough into a 1cm thick roll. This I put along the side of the muffin form and than press it flat with my fingers.

Just before filling the tarts carefully mix 100-150 g each tomatoes, onion, capsicum, zucchini (all cut into small dices) into the the egg mixture and than divide it evenly into the muffin forms. Alternatively you can put the vegetables directly onto the dough and top it up with the egg-milk mixture. In this case give your muffin form a careful shake to make sure the egg mixture goes into all gaps.

Halt of the tarts I sprinkle with some bacon the other half gets a thin tomato slice on top. The tarts need 15-20 minutes in the oven. Remove them from the oven and let them cool down a bit. Than remove carefully from the muffin forms and serve warm.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola