Mushroom Tarts

I was very apprehensive trying this out as it was the first time I was attempting to bake anything of this sort. It didn't come out exactly like it was supposed to. It was supposed to be one open tart, but my dough was too sticky so I made individual tarts which taste absolutely fine! This is a slightly complicated recipe but I'm glad I tried it and pushed my limits! I adapted the recipe from earthlydelightsblog.com. I'm giving the original recipe in my post, but as we go through I will mention the changes I made. The recipe is for two tarts, I halved the measurements and made about 12 small tarts. How you choose to do it is upto you!

There are three parts to this recipe; the tart dough, the sauce and the mushroom filling. I made the tart dough first and kept it aside and then made the sauce and finally the mushroom filling.

Tart Dough

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp sugar
226 g Amul butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and chilled
About 2/3 cup ice water

Mix together the flour and sugar. Add the butter and knead until the butter is evenly distributed but still in pea size pieces.

Add all the ice water at once and knead until the dough comes together. Divide it into two discs, wrap in plastic and store in the fridge for an hour. As I mentioned earlier, I halved the recipe so I had only one ball of dough to wrap.

Béchamel sauce

1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 egg, beaten until frothy
6 cubes coarsely grated cheese, divided
Sale & Pepper to taste

Melt the butter over medium low heat in a saucepan. Whisk in the flour until completely incorporated. Continue whisking over medium low while the butter & flour mixture bubbles, about 3 minutes.

Heat the milk until hot, but not boiling. Pour the hot milk, a little at a time, into the mixture while whisking continually. The mixture will quickly begin to thicken. Reduce the heat to low and continue to whisk until the sauce is thickened and smooth. Mix in the grated cheese bit by bit, until completely incorporated. Season with salt & pepper to taste and remove from the heat.

Whisk a little of the hot sauce (a couple of tablespoons) into the beaten egg to temper it. Then whisk the egg mixture into the sauce and set aside.

Mushroom Filling

2 packets mushrooms

2 chopped onions

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp thyme leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

Well here I omitted the onions because there just weren't any at home. Also, I used butter to saute. Thyme leaves also aren't easily available so I used McCormick's Italian seasoning. The easiest thing to add would be some oregano and paprika as there are invariably some packets lying around at home. Also, to make up for the lack of onions, I put in some garlic paste.

Saute the mushrooms and onions in the olive oil until all the liquid has evaporated. Add in the thyme leaves (or whatever you are planning to put) and salt and pepper. 

Roll out the tart dough about 10 inches wide and put 1/3rd of the mushroom filling in the centre. Spoon some sauce over it. Add a little more mushroom and cover it with sauce. Fold the edges of the dough towards the centre. Its not supposed to cover the mushroom stuffing entirely. Brush some egg wash over the folds and bake for 20 to 25 minutes in an oven preheated to 400 F or 200 C.

What I did was completely different. I made small tarts by making small circles of the dough, filling the mushroom stuffing and then closing it entirely and baking it that way. The end result was still good :)