I've been working on expanding my meat free options and decided to make another savoury tart from the Popina Book of Baking. Whilst leafing through the book I found this mushroom tart recipe which combines dried porcini mushrooms with fresh mushrooms. I love porcini mushrooms so was I sold.
I bought some button mushrooms and field mushrooms and would have bought some swiss browns as well except they were very expensive. You can use any combination of mushrooms.
The tart uses the same pizza dough base as the ratatouille tart.
I made the mushroom mixture the day before I baked the tart so it didn't take long to put together. I lightened the filling a bit by adding milk to the egg and cream mixture.
The tart came out of the oven just in time for my Sunday lunch.
Here's the recipe for you which makes 6 servings. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20ml tablespoon. I use 60g eggs and unsalted butter in all my recipes. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if you're oven is fan forced, you may need to lower the temperature by 20ºC.
Mushroom tart – adapted from The Popina Book Of Baking by Isidora Popovic.
You'll need an 8 inch square or round tart tin
Filling
1 quantity Pizza Dough
15 g dried porcini mushrooms
1 large red onion, diced
40 mls olive oil
2 tbs water
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp cracked black pepper
1 tsp finely chopped thyme leaves plus extra for serving
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
150 g button mushrooms, halved if large
200 g field mushrooms, thickly sliced
100 mls cream
75 mls milk
1 egg, beaten
Method
Put the porcini mushrooms into a bowl of warm water and leave to soak for 20 minutes. Drain, chop then set aside.
Put the onion, oil, and water into a frying pan and sauté for about 10 minutes or until soft and the water has evaporated. Remove from the heat and add the salt, pepper, thyme leaves, garlic and the porcini mushrooms and stir to combine.
Preheat oven to 200ºC. Put the button and field mushrooms into a baking tray; drizzle with oil then cover the tin with foil and roast for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool covered for a further 10 minutes. Drain any excess liquid from the mushrooms, then stir them into the onion mixture.
Reduce the oven temperature to 180ºC and while the vegetables are cooling make the pizza dough.
Pizza dough
220g plain flour
1tsp dried yeast
½ tsp salt
2 tbs olive oil
1 egg
80 mls warm water
Method
Mix the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the oil, egg and water. Mix together to form a soft dough. Cover the dough and allow to rest for 10 minutes before gently kneading on a lightly oiled surface. The dough should be soft but not sticky. Roll the dough to 3mm thickness.
To make the tart, grease the tin then line the tart tin with the pizza dough but don’t trim the edges yet. In a bowl mix the cream, milk and egg then pour half the mixture into the prepared tart shell. Spread the cooled vegetables over the tart before carefully pouring in the remaining cream mixture. Trim the excess pizza dough before baking.
Bake the tart at 180ºC for 30 min or until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is set. Remove from the oven and leave to cool before serving. Garnish the cooked tart with sprigs of thyme.
This was another extremely delicious tart from the book. The pizza crust is so easy to make I can't wait to make another tart using a different filling, maybe something pumpkiny?
See you again soon with some more baking from my kitchen.
Bye for now,
Jillian
