Gruyère Cheese and Mushroom Custard Tart

Intro: This Cheese and Mushroom Tart is an appetizer that is nice start to a meal because it offers the earthy flavors of mushrooms and the creaminess of cheese inside of a flakey and  buttery  pastry dough. Sound familiar?
It should, because the cheese and mushroom tart shares some key similarities and differences with my last blog's Fruit Tart.

• The similarities are that both tarts can be made before your guests arrive and they are made from the same dough.
• The differences:
  • The cheese tart is savory and therefore should be served before the meal (as opposed to after it)
  • While both tarts use the same dough, the cheese tart bakes with the filling inside of it instead of being filled after it is cooked.
  • The dough amount is  halved for the cheese tart and so instead of being formed into four large 8-ounce ramekins they are formed into the four smaller muffin holes of a standard muffin pan.
  • Lastly, there are no rice weights or egg-wash needed for this recipe.

 
The pastry dough recipe is first and the cheese and mushroom filling follows it.
 
A quick reminder.  When making your tart shell make sure to keep your counter well-floured (to prevent the dough from sticking to it) and the dough well chilled (to make it easier to handle). 

​Pastry Dough for the Cheese and Mushroom Tart
 

1) Mix your ingredients. Add the butter and vegetable oil to the dry ingredients and break the dough  up into pieces with your fingertips.
 
2) Slice in your water. Make  a well in the center of the dough, add cold water and slice the dough in quick short strokes until the water is thoroughly incorporated into the dough.
 
3) Shape your dough. Gently roll the dough into a ball, place on floured counter, and form into a cylinder shape.
 
4) Chill your dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

5) Portion your dough. When the dough is thoroughly chilled place on the counter and cut and scale 4-1 ounce portions. 
​
6) Roll your dough. Flour both your rolling pin and counter and roll each dough portion-one at a time-until it is about 1/8 inch thick. Make sure to keep flour under the dough as you roll it so it doesn’t stick to the counter.     
 
7) Form your dough into four muffin cups of a muffin pan. Carefully pick up your dough with either a pallet knife or other flat tool and gently place the rolled dough over 4 muffin cups and push the dough down into the cups so they fit the holes' shape and come to the top and over the lip.
 
8) Score the lips of your dough inside the ramekins.
 
9) Set the pan aside and make your filling.

Scoring the edges

Cheese and Mushroom Filling 

​1) Sauté vegetable oil and diced mushrooms on a medium flame until the mushrooms are soft. Set aside.
 
2) In a separate pot make a roux with equal parts butter to flour. Cook the roux until it becomes a medium brown color similar in appearance to wet sand.
 
3) Turn off the heat and slowly whisk in the hot cream. The mixture should thicken quickly. Leave the heat off from now on.
 
4) Add a beaten egg to the mixture by tempering it. To temper the egg, add a little of the cream sauce to it and mix the ingredients together before adding the egg to the large batch of cream sauce.
(Tempering your egg prevents it from scrambling when you add it to the cream sauce).
 
5) Give the sauce a good whisking to remove any stubborn lumps and then stir in the cheese, parsley, salt, cayenne, and mushrooms.
 
6) Spoon the mixture into the 4 muffin tins evenly just below the lip of each one.
 

Tempering the egg

7) Place in a 425 degree oven for 12 minutes. The crust along the edges of the tarts should be browning and the tart filling should be puffing up.
 
8) Cover with aluminum foil and cook an additional 10 minutes until the tarts are puffed up and are golden brown.
 
9) Remove from the oven, let them cool slightly, and then gingerly pop them out of the holes with your fingers or by slicing around the edges with a paring knife.
 
10. Allow them to sit at room temperature for at  least a half hour before serving so the custard has time to set.
 
11. Garnish with equal parts cream to sour cream and chopped parsley. 
​

Ready for the oven

Gruyère Cheese and Mushroom Custard Tart

Terms related to tarts:

Score- Small cuts in pastry dough that add eye-appeal and also allows some steam to escape.
 
Tempering- The process of warming raw eggs before they are added to a hot liquid by first slowly adding some of the hot liquid to the eggs before they are incorporated into the bulk of the hot liquid. This process prevents the eggs from scrambling.