Mushroom and Goat's Cheese Tart

  

I stumbled across Cook Sister!'s Topless Tart project for April, and I thought this would be a great recipe for the theme! This recipe is compliments of Simple Bites, but I have amended it a bit - I added a cream and egg mixture, just to moisten it and make it more "tarty" in my mind, and I think it worked really well. I love, loved the pastry they used for this - it is rich and deliciously flaky and well...perfect. I know most people have their own favourite recipe, but please try this one, just once. You won't regret it. The amount I used was half the original recipe, and I still had leftover  - it is now safely wrapped in clingfilm in my freezer, awaiting the next pie adventure.

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

1 1/4 cup plain flour

1/2 cup butter

2 tbsp ice cold water

1 tbsp lemon juice

For the filling:

2 cups assorted mushrooms

1 onion

1 sprig rosemary

butter for frying

1/4 log goat's cheese (about 25g)

2 eggs

125ml cream

Method:

Heat oven to 180 degrees C. Pour water into a measuring cup and add egg yolks and lemon juice. Beat with a fork. Sift flour into bowl, and add cubes of butter. Rub in with your fingertips only until mixture resembles yellow breadcrumbs. Pour the egg / water mixture in, stir with a knife until it comes together, then use your hands and push together until it forms a dough. Add more flour if it seems too wet and sticky.

I lined my tin with greaseproof paper (then coated that with butter and flour) as I am paranoid about things sticking, but you can decide how much faith you have in your tart tin! Now - you can either roll out your ball of pastry with a rolling pin and then place it in your tin and cut to fit, or like me, you can break off pieces of dough with your fingers, and press it into your tin manually. Whatever you find works best for you.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until lightly golden brown all over.

While it is baking happily you can make your filling - fry your mushrooms with butter and rosemary broken from the sprig, and season to taste. Caramelise onions over a low heat with about 1 tbsp butter, 5 tbsp water and 1 tsp brown sugar. Cook over a low heat until onions are soft, sticky and brown and water has evaporated.
Now for the assembly - spread the onions evenly over the base of the tart shell. Mix the mushrooms with the cream and eggs, and spread over the onions. Now you can either add some goat's cheese so it melts in the oven, or sprinkle it on when ready to serve. Bake at 180 degrees C for about 15 minutes, until filling isn't liquid any more. Serve as is, or with a simple green salad.