Through luck or serendipity, TWO of my blog hops have landed on the same date and both have potatoes as an ingredient in their challenges. So I’m doing double duty today with the Improv Challenge (potatoes and cheese) hosted by Kristen of Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker and The Holiday Blog Hop (potatoes, beer or pistachios) hosted by Erin of Big Fat Baker. Much as I wanted to find a dessert to share, it was much easier to focus on a side dish. I saw these simple tartlets from Gourmet magazine and knew they’d be perfect.
A basic pastry crust was filled with sliced and cooked new potatoes, then a mixture of cream and an egg yolk, and finally some crumbled blue cheese and chopped rosemary and thyme. These smelled insanely good as they baked…and we weren’t disappointed in the results one bit. Even the often persnickety teenage boy thought they were excellent. And Bill has already taken the recipe to work…
Blue Cheese and Potato Tartlets…adapted from Gourmet
Pastry:
1 1/2 cups flour
Dash of salt
1/2 cup butter, cut into bits
3-4 tablespoons cold water
Filling:
3/4 pound red new potatoes
1 cup heavy cream
1 egg yolk
1/4 pound Maytag blue cheese, crumbled
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
Fleur de sel or sea salt for sprinkling
Whisk together flour and salt, then blend in butter with fingers (or pastry blender) until mixture looks like coarse corn meal. Sprinkle with 3 tablespoons water and stir with fork until fully incorporated. Squeeze some of the dough in your hands…if it doesn’t hold together, add up to 1 more tablespoon of water till the dough holds when testing. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead a few times with the heel of your hand to distribute the butter. Pat into a disk, wrap in plastic and chill at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350º.
Cut potatoes into 1/4 inch slices and simmer, covered with water, till tender. Drain and let dry on paper towels.
Whisk together cream and egg yolk.
Divide dough into 6 pieces. Roll out on floured surface into 5 inch circles. Fit into six 4-inch tartlet pans, trimming off excess dough. Chill shells for at least 10 minutes.
Arrange about 4 slices of potatoes in each tart shell. Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of the cheese into each shell, then divide cream mixture between tartlets. Top each with 1/4 teaspoon of both thyme and rosemary followed by a light spinkling of sea salt.
Bake tartlets on a baking sheet for 45-50 minutes. Cool for about 10 minutes before removing from pans to serve.
Makes 6.
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{ 88 comments… read them below or add one }
Gosh. Is it time to link up already? I thought I had some time more. Hope I can make this one.
Lovely tart, Lizzy! Blue cheese and potatoes in a crust … heavenly! Great for a light lunch … unless I devour all 6
Yummy and it looks really fab !!! I’ll have one of that tart or two in exchange for my veggies stir fry here ! hahaha
i like it
I’ve got to try these! Oooo!
Yum, Lizzy!
These would be good any time of day! They look delicious!
Yummy!!!
Life and travelling
Cooking
OMG! I want it know! looks divine!!! You make me feel hungry!
http://www.rollolollo.com
Hi Lizzy!
Looks like a perfect dinner your little cute tartlets! They will be surely every ones favourite.
Liz, it’s one of these rare moments when a vegetarian dish (or simply meatless, fishless, seafoodless) looks so appetising I start craving it.
You are a busy bee! These tartlets have a great flavor blend-I think I would need at least two of these little gems. Between your description and the pictures I now am craving this-yum! Have a great day.
Looks delish! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Nice tarts. I love the flavors.
Lizzy really love make thrse type of little tarts and these look awesome,have a nice day dear:)
I love Gourmet (and miss them very much). The tartlets sound delicious. I’ll take blue cheese, potatoes and rosemary together any day.
I think these look amazing! And I can’t think of much better combos than bacon and potatoes! Anne
I meant BLUE CHEEESE, wow I must have bacon on my mind!!
Hubby and I would both love this what great flavors with the potatoes!
Lizzy these look picture perfect! Great recipe. I can actually smell them cooking in the oven and know they taste heavenly!
Lizzy these look picture perfect! Great recipe. I can actually smell them cooking in the oven and know they taste heavenly!
Lizzy,
Your little potato tarts have great flavor with all that blue cheese. I’ll have to make these for my hubby, who loves Maytag blue cheese.
These look totally baked to golden perfection. I would have to switch out the cheese though, for some reason I just can’t get into blue cheese but my daughter loves it.
These tarts look fantastic! Can’t wait to try out this recipe myself!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
This looks amazing. YUM!
I can imagine the wonderful smell of this tart you made. What a great combo of the two ingredients we will drool over, that potatoes being utmost up there and cheese on the other hand. Am admiring the pics and can’t get enough of it.
Amazing! I must try these, my husband would adore the flavor combos!
Whata great recipe and such beautiful photo’s. I have always wanted to make a tart and yourr ecipe sounds like a good one to start with!
Oh yum. I’ve made scalloped blue cheese potatoes before and they rocked. I bet these are amazing too.
These look awesome…now I want a savoury tart!
Absolutely stunning! I bet these would be fantastic as either a side dish or even a casual dinner party starter.
These are gorgeous!! They’d be perfect for entertaining (and any holiday!). The flavor combination is to die for.
What pretty tarts! And the flavors go together beautifully!
Perfect-looking!
Lizzy, these are fabulous! I love these flavors for tarlets – so creative and I bet very delicious. Great recipe and beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful! Wish I would have combined mine, too, but doing two separate posts was fun, too ; ). Great job!
Nothing beats a potato my friend. I think it is the black dress of the culinary world. You picked a great recipe for hour Holiday Recipe Club. Thanks for sharing with us.
Yes! I love these. I’ve made a larger tart very similar to this in the past. Blue cheese is one of my favorite things.
The tartlets look delicious:) Blue cheese and potato- tasty combination.
looks nice
These are such pretty savory tarts! I love the blue cheese here.
cheese and potato always a good combination! love you used thyme and rosemary in it!!
i love dishes with blue cheese, and i live in a place where we have potatoes to cook and sometimes little else. this dish looks savory and delicious:)
Absolutely Gorgeous Looking Tarts….
I can taste the cheese and potatoes…Yumm
I don’t know why I’m perusing your blog when I’m hungry. I can smell those perfectly baked tartlets over here. They look absolutely scrumptious!
I don’t know why I’m perusing your blog when I’m hungry. I can smell those perfectly baked tartlets over here. They look absolutely scrumptious!
Lizzy, those look so good it’s practically criminal! I wish I had your hand with short pastry.
Those are really beautiful, super fancy, but full of comfort. My kind of dish!
The planets are aligned! How lucky—the same ingredients and the same posting day. These look delicious.
My husband simply loves blue cheese so I believe these little tarts would be a perfect meal for him! My son also likes blue cheese so with this recipe I can please both my men!
Yummy! Do you think goat cheese would be a good substitute? My husband will not eat blue cheese. I thought about making half with blue & the other half with goat.
Lizzy this is mouth watering….I am totally making this treat THIS WEEKEND!!!!! Such perfect BRUNCH-y girlfriend lunch food….I don’t have tartlet pans, maybe I’ll use the pyrex pie dish I make quiche in and have one big one
I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out!!!!
This tarts looks like savoury heaven – another outdone recipe by you
I love your blog everytime a little more!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
lovely tart Lizyy dear
Such lovely and delicious tarts, great choice for both hops.
If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to check out my Improv Cooking Challenge entry: Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole
Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook
Oh my gosh these look amazing!! I love the blue cheese in there..there’s no way I could resist.
These look so good. Hubby and I would eat them up…. I can’t get the little one to eat anything blue cheese lol.
These tartlets sound so fantastic…I’d be thrilled to have them as a main course! A real keeper! Thanks!
I was just thinking about how lovely tarts would be for dinner tonight. Thank you for the inspiration!
Yum! Can’t wait to try this one!
How pretty Lizzy. They look like little French quiches. Am pinning this.
Sam
I just love individual tarts, but these ones look delicious!
Sounds absolutely delicious, I love anything with blue cheese. I need to attempt a proper tart, sooner or later.
I love tarts – all kinds, sweet and savory. These look so good I can almost taste them
Lizzy you’re such a creative gal… two recipe challenges with one dish. Well done! These savory tarts look wonderful! I love those little tart pans. Hmmm… now I’ve got the urge to go find them.
OMG Lizzy these look soooo good!!
They sound terrific…ahhh I’m so hungry!!
Hope you have been well dear!!
Toodles,
Tammy <3
These are just gorgeous – I adore Maytag blue cheese (not to mention bacon and potatoes.) Thanks for sharing!
These are so pretty…and the flavor combo is EXCELLENT, Lizzy! I love rosemary…it smells so good as it cooks and releases its oils.
Cheese and potatoes in a yummy tart crust. I’m so there!
Wow those look awesome! I bet they smelled amazing too
, Miriam@Meatless Meals For Meat Eaters
Can I please come to your house to dinner?
I could have that as a main dish! They look so good! And a slice of that wonderful looking strawberry cheesecake in your previous post for dessert, please:D
These are too gorgeous for words. LOVE.
I would gladly devour a couple of these! They sound delicious!! I LOVE blue cheese! Thanks for sharing
Although I am not crazy about blue cheese, this tart makes me drool. You know I hear people say that for something they don’t like but picture looks so good that you salivate beyond control… it’s like that. Looks so good, and I thought myself, hey I’m not so into blue cheese…. I think blue cheese must work for this recipe. This might change my mind of having blue cheese (I usually eat by itself with crackers).
I have a savory tooth and this savory tart sounds so yum! Not a fan of blue cheese that much but i am sure i can use a substitute!
These tarts look so tasty! I love blue cheese in anything, so this is perfect!
Oh my! My hubby will surely love these blue cheese tartlets! Blue cheese is his favorite cheese ! These tartlets look so appetizing & lovely. Very beautiful pictures too.
Yum! Liz, this looks incredible. I am not a huge fan of blue cheese, but, I think some crumbles goat cheese would work just as wonderfully!!
I love almost anything with blue cheese, and those are lovely tartlets, Liz!
These are gorgeous and delicious. What a great flavor combination. And the photography is beautiful!
Way to kill two birds with one stone. I am not sure why you would do that. You picked a great recipe anyway. Have a great weekend.
I love it when two challenges fall on the same day AND have a common thread. Beautiful tartlets, I like how you see the chink of potatoes sticking out.
These individual savoury tartlets look terrific! You are quite a baker!
These tarts look fantastic. Thanks and have a good weekend.
Delicious tartlets, Lizzy! You can’t got wrong with blue cheese and potatoes!
interesting. i’ve never tried blue cheese before (my mom doesn’t like it). maybe it’s time to try something new!
Amanda
Lizzy, these look absolutely amazing! The combo of flavors here sounds sooooo good!
These look incredible and sound so very delicious!
nice idea.. thanks for posting..