Canuck Cuisine

Oh my, what a crazy tir­ing day. We drove out to do some light hik­ing and pic­nick­ing in the moun­tains, by that I mean to pick up ready-​made lunch and walk along the river a bit before get­ting chased by rain, got home and basi­cally col­lapsed from tired­ness and all that fresh air. Paja­mas at 6pm are com­pletely accept­able in this state. So is a lap­top and being sprawled out on the couch while my other moun­tain trekking bud­dies (that be dog & hus­band) are already sleep­ing beside me.

What I’m cur­rently wish­ing for is that I made more of these cheese tarts yes­ter­day. For some rea­son, I only made 4, and they were gone in an instant. How do you only make 4 tarts?!

I have to tell you that eat­ing them was a pro­foundly enjoy­able expe­ri­ence. And filling.

The fill­ing is made from crum­bled goat cheese, yogurt, milk and egg whites. That’s right, no yolks, peeps, which was entirely an acci­dent — I didn’t have eggs, just a car­ton of egg whites. A great way to find out that you can sub­sti­tute them no prob­lem and the fill­ing will still set beautifully.

The tart pas­try is a bit unusual, since I incor­po­rated 1/​4 cup of spelt flakes to give it a funkier, crunchier, tex­ture. You can sub­sti­tute oat­meal, but my hunch is that it will be a bit softer.

Of course, the pas­try is made with b-​u-​t-​t-​e-​r. Just say yes.

Don’t for­get the chives — the good­ness of spring, and we have so much already grow­ing out­side. Spring onions are an accept­able sub­sti­tute, just slice them sliver-​thin.

We ate these as soon as I was done with the pic­tures (in which you don’t see my hubby hov­er­ing just across the table), but you have more prep time, you can serve them with a small green salad driz­zled with olive oil and some toasted wal­nuts on the side.

Tip: The lined tart pans can be refrig­er­ated for up to 1 day in advance.

This makes 4 tarts So dou­ble, triple, or quadru­ple the recipe!

Ingre­di­ents

Fill­ing

2/​3 cup 2% milk
1/​3 cup plain yogurt (Greek style, if pos­si­ble)
6 tbs & 4 tsp egg whites
4 tbs finely chopped fresh chives
salt and freshly ground black pep­per, to taste
80 gr (about 3 oz) crum­bled goat cheese (I used Pican­dou from Perig­ord, a very creamy and mild fla­vored goat cheese, I absolutely rec­om­mend it)

Pas­try

3/​4 cup whole wheat pas­try flour (or sub­sti­tute all pur­pose flour)
pinch of salt
1/​4 cup spelt flakes (or sub­sti­tute rolled oats)
4 tbs cold but­ter, diced
4 tbs iced water, as required

Direc­tions

Pas­try

Com­bine the flour, salt and spelt flakes in a bowl. Add the but­ter and rub it in with your fin­ger­tips until the mix­ture is coarse and sandy. Stir in the water to make a dough that holds together, but is not sticky. Wrap in plas­tic wrap and refrig­er­ate for about 30 minutes.

Pre­heat the oven to 400F.

When the dough is chilled, take it out of the fridge and divide into 4. Lightly flour a work sur­face and roll out each por­tion into a thin (1/​8 inch) round. Get four 4 inch diam­e­ter tart pans ready and line each with the pas­try. Line each tart with parch­ment paper and fill with bak­ing beans. Bake for 10 min­utes. Take out of the oven and remove the bak­ing beans and parch­ment paper. Bake for 5 – 8 more min­utes, or until lightly browned.

Fill­ing

Reduce the oven tem­per­a­ture to 350F.

In a medium bowl, whisk the milk, yogurt, egg whites and chives. Sea­son with salt and pep­per. Divide the crum­bled cheese evenly among the tart shells and pour over the milk mix­ture. Bake for 25 – 30 min­utes, or until the fill­ing is lightly set.

Leave to cool slightly and remove from the tart pans.

Enjoy!