Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Tarts

We apologize for the disappearance of our blog earlier this week.  We were experiencing some technical difficulties.  Yes, we had quite a scare here at Tasty Easy Healthy Green.   Yesterday I noticed that not a single person had visited the site the previous day and that very few had visited the day before that.  Since we usually have about as many visitors as Jamie Oliver does to his site, we were a little concerned.   Wondering what was going on, I tried to bring up the site.  Instead of seeing the familiar green title and photo banner, I saw a mostly blank page with a few error messages.  Eek!

I took a deep breath and then very calmly asked Graham, “what is wrong with our blog!?!”  After confirming that the site was indeed down, Graham went into our account to investigate the problem.   When I heard some annoyed mutterings coming from where he was working, I knew things couldn’t be good.   Double eek!  At first I don’t think he wanted to tell me, but then he let it go that all of the content for the blog had been erased!  Triple eek!

I tried to keep it together while he worked through the problem, but I couldn’t help but think about all of the work it would take to re-create the site.   After a call with technical assistance that seemed to last an eternity, Graham was able to restore the blog to its normal state.  Halleluiah!    We’re not exactly sure what happened with the site, but Graham had been doing some updating earlier in the week to another site he manages and we think that somehow that could have impacted the blog.   Whatever the case, I am very grateful for the “restore” function in our website account and plan to be much more careful about backing up the blog.

So what does all of this have to do with caramelized onion and goat cheese tarts?  Well, sometimes after experiencing a traumatic event nothing works better to calm the nerves then cooking and eating a delicious meal.  While working the dough for these crispy tart crusts and watching the onions slowly turn a deep golden brown, I was momentarily able to set aside any worries or pressing concerns and just focus on the task at hand.   Once I emerged from this meditative-like state, I had some lovely little tarts inviting me to once again set aside my problems and indulge in their sweet onion, earthy thyme, and tangy goat cheese flavors.  If you are also in need of some “kitchen therapy” (or just in need of something delicious!), please give these little tarts a try.

Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Tarts

The crust for these mini tarts is an easy whole wheat and olive oil crust that I found on the Chocolate and Zucchini blog.  I loved how quickly this tasty crust came together and may make it my go to crust for savory tarts and quiches.   Also instead of one large tart, I made six 4-inch mini tarts.  If you do not have mini-tart pans, the dough and ingredients should be enough for a single 11 to 12 inch tart.

• Whole wheat and olive oil tart dough
• Olive oil
• 2 medium yellow onions, sliced into thin crescents
• 4 oz goat cheese
• 2 tablespoons milk or half and half
• Several sprigs of fresh thyme

Preheat oven to 400° and lightly grease the tart pans.  Roll out the tart dough and cut out 6 circles that are slightly larger then the tart pans.   Press the dough into the tart pans and trim dough so that it is even with the top of pans.  Prick the dough several times with a fork.  Blind bake the crust for about 10-15 minutes or until the crust is just beginning to turn brown.   Remove from oven and set aside.

To caramelize the onions, heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet.  Add the sliced onions and cook over low heat for roughly 30 minutes, stirring every few minutes to keep the onions from burning.   The onions should cook down quite a bit and take on a rich brown color.  Remove from heat and set aside.

In a small bowl mix together goat cheese and milk or half and half.  Use enough milk to make the goat cheese smooth and creamy.

To assemble the tarts, cover the bottom of each of the tart crusts with the goat cheese mixture.  Stack the caramelized onions on top of the goat cheese and sprinkle with a few fresh thyme leaves.   Bake the tarts at 400° until they are heated through (I think I baked them for about 10 minutes or so).

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