Goat Cheese, Pear, and Prosciutto Tartlets
Aug. 1st, 2010 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lassarina in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
omnomnomI made these for the housewarming party I threw last night. They were creamy and rich (perhaps a bit overly rich). These are very filling and kind of dense; this recipe makes 48 but for many occasions 24 would be sufficient. I find that 3 per person is a pretty reasonable expectation, but they're hard to eat a LOT of. They do reheat well, though.
Specialized Equipment: Mini muffin pan
48 Wonton or Gyoza wrappers, thawed
8 slices of prosciutto (sliced thick if you can get it)
18 oz. goat cheese
1 c. heavy cream*
2-3 large Anjou pears
3-4 tbsp. balsamic vinegar**
*2% milk works, which is in fact what I used because I forgot to buy cream, but I bet cream would be better.
**I didn't measure this; explanation below.
How long this takes you will depend on how many mini muffins your pan handles; mine does 24.
Preheat the oven to 350F. While it's doing that, squish a gyoza wrapper or wonton wrapper (whichever you happened to get) into each cup of the mini muffin pan.
Trim the fatty back stripe off the prosciutto, and then cut each slice into 6 pieces. (I haven't decided yet if this would be better with double the prosciutto, or just overwhelming.) Put a piece of prosciutto into each wrapper.
Put the goat cheese and the cream in a bowl and stir them determinedly until they are blended and more squishable. (Learn from my mistakes: do not wear a black shirt while so doing.) Nuking the goat cheese a bit might make this step easier, I think--maybe a minute or so on 30% power. Just enough to melt it a bit. You could add herbs at this step--I've seen a lot of goat cheese recipes that incorporate thyme. I was sort of throwing this together on a whim, though, and working without any kind of recipe.
Put the goat cheese mixture into a decorating bag with a star tip if you've got one. If you don't have one, scoop it all into a gallon-sized Ziploc and cut off a small bit of one of the bottom corners to improvise. Squeeze a bit into each tartlet; remember to hold back enough to do the second (or third) batch, depending on your mini muffin pan.
Core the pears and cut them into reasonable sized chunks. I think 3/4 inch dice is pretty solid; you could do it smaller and just put more pieces into each tartlet. Put the pears on top of your tartlets. Pop the whole thing in the oven and bake for about 6-7 minutes. Pull them out and the wrappers should be hot and crispy, the cheese melty, and the pears browned on the skin bits.
My experiment indicated that it took about 3 minutes for the tartlets to cool enough for me to pull them out of the pan and onto a serving platter, and about 5 minutes after that for the pan to cool enough for me to do the second batch.
Drizzle a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar on top of the tartlets, or you could come up with some kind of more interesting dipping sauce. Pomegranate might be tasty.
Even with the balsamic vinegar, I think there's something that's not quite enough about these--they need something with a little dazzle--so perhaps you, the Internet, can consult with me until we come up with something awesome? Goat cheese might not have been the best choice and it was definitely labour intensive, but I liked the flavour of it combined with the pears and prosciutto. Sauteed mushrooms and onions might add a little more, especially if I cut back the cheese in favour of more varied fillings. You could probably do something cool with a mixture of maybe shredded mozzarella and parmesan, or maybe romano cheese.
Allergen notes: Wheat and milk, for sure. Possibly soy from the wrappers. Nothing I used *said* it had nuts in it and I didn't inadvertently kill my friend with the peanut allergy for which I am grateful, but that was all I specifically checked for.
Cuisine/Restriction notes: Very definitely NOT kosher or vegan, although you could possibly substitute turkey bacon and a different cheese? Could be made vegetarian if you subbed in mushrooms for the prosciutto.
Specialized Equipment: Mini muffin pan
48 Wonton or Gyoza wrappers, thawed
8 slices of prosciutto (sliced thick if you can get it)
18 oz. goat cheese
1 c. heavy cream*
2-3 large Anjou pears
3-4 tbsp. balsamic vinegar**
*2% milk works, which is in fact what I used because I forgot to buy cream, but I bet cream would be better.
**I didn't measure this; explanation below.
How long this takes you will depend on how many mini muffins your pan handles; mine does 24.
Preheat the oven to 350F. While it's doing that, squish a gyoza wrapper or wonton wrapper (whichever you happened to get) into each cup of the mini muffin pan.
Trim the fatty back stripe off the prosciutto, and then cut each slice into 6 pieces. (I haven't decided yet if this would be better with double the prosciutto, or just overwhelming.) Put a piece of prosciutto into each wrapper.
Put the goat cheese and the cream in a bowl and stir them determinedly until they are blended and more squishable. (Learn from my mistakes: do not wear a black shirt while so doing.) Nuking the goat cheese a bit might make this step easier, I think--maybe a minute or so on 30% power. Just enough to melt it a bit. You could add herbs at this step--I've seen a lot of goat cheese recipes that incorporate thyme. I was sort of throwing this together on a whim, though, and working without any kind of recipe.
Put the goat cheese mixture into a decorating bag with a star tip if you've got one. If you don't have one, scoop it all into a gallon-sized Ziploc and cut off a small bit of one of the bottom corners to improvise. Squeeze a bit into each tartlet; remember to hold back enough to do the second (or third) batch, depending on your mini muffin pan.
Core the pears and cut them into reasonable sized chunks. I think 3/4 inch dice is pretty solid; you could do it smaller and just put more pieces into each tartlet. Put the pears on top of your tartlets. Pop the whole thing in the oven and bake for about 6-7 minutes. Pull them out and the wrappers should be hot and crispy, the cheese melty, and the pears browned on the skin bits.
My experiment indicated that it took about 3 minutes for the tartlets to cool enough for me to pull them out of the pan and onto a serving platter, and about 5 minutes after that for the pan to cool enough for me to do the second batch.
Drizzle a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar on top of the tartlets, or you could come up with some kind of more interesting dipping sauce. Pomegranate might be tasty.
Even with the balsamic vinegar, I think there's something that's not quite enough about these--they need something with a little dazzle--so perhaps you, the Internet, can consult with me until we come up with something awesome? Goat cheese might not have been the best choice and it was definitely labour intensive, but I liked the flavour of it combined with the pears and prosciutto. Sauteed mushrooms and onions might add a little more, especially if I cut back the cheese in favour of more varied fillings. You could probably do something cool with a mixture of maybe shredded mozzarella and parmesan, or maybe romano cheese.
Allergen notes: Wheat and milk, for sure. Possibly soy from the wrappers. Nothing I used *said* it had nuts in it and I didn't inadvertently kill my friend with the peanut allergy for which I am grateful, but that was all I specifically checked for.
Cuisine/Restriction notes: Very definitely NOT kosher or vegan, although you could possibly substitute turkey bacon and a different cheese? Could be made vegetarian if you subbed in mushrooms for the prosciutto.
