My dear food lovers, I made a colourful savoury tarte for you instead of a sweet one. It turned out unbelievably beautiful. Don’t you think this carrot tarte looks just fabulous? And believe me, it tastes just the same as it looks. Awesome!
I got the inspiration from these colourful carrots. Did you know that there are more than just orange carrots? No? Well, you can find them in lovely red, purple or yellow nuances as well. I love the look of the purple ones the most because they are also orange inside. So cool! The mother nature is wonderful!
For the shortcrust pastry, I used the simple rule of 3: 2: 1. These are the proportions of flour, butter and water. And it works either with savoury or sweet dough. In addition, you can add also some other flavours, like different spices and herbs or some chocolate powder.
As a filling, I made a cream cheese thyme filling. Mmmm, delicious! It’s just perfect for this carrot tarte. Thyme is one of those herbs which I simply love. You can add it to savoury/sweet pastry, meat, soups, salads or fish. I also used mandarin zest for the fresh citrus note and as always there is a crunch. Hehehe. This time I used almonds. And there is also a butter-mandarin glaze for the pretty look.
Ingredients for a small (Ø20 cm) carrot tarte:
For the crust
- 130 g flour
- 90 g butter (cold, cubes)
- 3 Tbsp iced water
- ¼ tsp salt
- rosemary
For the filling
- 3 carrots (purple, orange, yellow)
- 1 egg (beaten)
- 40 g cottage cheese
- 70 g cream cheese
- salt, pepper
- 1 tsp mandarin zest
- 4-5 fresh thyme springs
- 2 Tbsp slivered almonds
For the glaze
- 50 ml mandarin juice (fresh)
- 10 g butter
- salt
For the shortcrust pastry dough, mix the flour, salt, cold butter and water. The butter and water must be cold. You can mix it using the hand mixer dough hooks or simply using your hands. You can chop the rosemary and add it directly into the dough or sprinkle it on top when the dough is in the tarte form. Once the dough looks like small crumbles, form a ball, wrap it in a transparent food foil and put in the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes.
In the meantime, wash and peel the carrots. Then cut them into 1-1,5cm thick round slices. I shortly blanched them. A couple of minutes will do just fine. The purple carrot likes to release the colour. In order to prevent other carrots to get coloured, blanch them separately. Then rinse them under cold running water.
In a small bowl mix a beaten egg, cottage cheese, cream cheese, thyme, salt and mandarin zest.
When the dough has rested enough, take it out of the fridge and place it on a lightly flowered surface. Leave it to stand for a minute. Preheat the oven to 200º C. Then, using a rolling pin (or if you don’t have one, simply use a bottle), roll it out. Try to make it 3 mm thin and the same shape as the form, but only a little bit bigger (ca 3 cm).
Grease the tarte form with some butter and lay the rolled out dough in it. Gently press the dough with your fingers against the bottom and up the sides. To remove the dough in excess, simply roll with the rolling pin over the sides of the tarte form. I created some cute, decorative dough flowers with the extra dough.
Furthermore, with a fork prick the dough bottom and put to bake for 10 minutes. After that, take it out of the oven, fill it with the cheese mixture, place the carrots on top of it (in your desired pattern), add the decorative flowers (if you made them) and put to bake at 180º C for 20 minutes or until the dough is golden-brown.
In the meantime, prepare the glaze. For the glaze, melt the butter with mandarin juice and let it simmer until reduced by half.
Once the tarte is done, turn off the oven, slightly open the oven door and let it rest for 10 minutes. Last but not least, brush the tarte with the mandarin-butter glaze. This will give the carrot tarte a nice, shiny effect.
Serving this carrot tarte on a grey and cold day will definitely bring some spring feeling in your home. The colourful carrots are like spring flowers and the thyme-mandarin addition gives an extra fresh flavour to the dish.
Enjoy!
