After so many days, I am back with a baking post. I have stopped baking for the past two months and when the electricity bill came yesterday, I was shocked. The bill was nearly 2/3rd of the previous bill. Now I know why my Electricity bills were so high. This pie has been in my drafts for more than three months. So I didn’t bake it yesterday but I still remember the taste. My daughter usually gobbles only cakes and chocolates and stays away from most of the tarts and other bakes. She herself loved these mini tarts filled with paneer. I had some left over pastry crust in the fridge and used it to make these tarts.
The filling is inspired by our cuisine. It is not an usual pie or tart filling. During my baking days, I usually had a box of crumbled paneer in my fridge. So while thinking of the filling for these tarts, the box of paneer came in handy. The spices are all our usual spices which is available in our kitchen. I have two types of pastry doughs which I always use in my recipes, one for sweet and one for savoury. This time, I tried using the sweet pastry dough with the paneer filling and I was so happy with the results. The pastry is mildly sweet, so buttery and flaky and the filling was so soft and the contrast in the textures worked so nicely.
Sweet Pastry Dough:
Ingredients:
Flour-2 1/2 cups
Salt-1 tsp
Sugar-1/3 cup
Cold Butter-1 cup
Ice Cold Water-1/4 – 1/2 cup
Procedure:
In a bowl mix together flour, salt and sugar.
Cube cold butter and add it to the flour mixture.
With the tips of fingers rub the flour and butter until the butter is broken into pea sized pieces.
Add in 1/4 cup of cold water and mix with a fork. Do not knead.
Now add extra water to bring the dough together.
Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour.
For The Filling:
Crumbled Paneer / Cottage Cheese – 2 cups
Red Chilly Powder-1 tsp
Coriander Powder-1 tsp
Roasted Cumin Powder-1/4 tsp
Salt-to taste
Amchur/ Dry Mango Powder- 1/2 tsp
Milk-3-4 tbs
Procedure:
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Remove the pastry dough from fridge and divide it into equal portions. Place one dough portion in a muffin mould and press it to create a slightly thin cup. Trim off excess dough.
Mix all the ingredients given for the filling and fill the pastry dough cups with it.
Bake the tarts until the crust starts browning. It may take 20-30 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow it to cool.
When the tarts are warm to touch, with the help of a small spatula, remove it from the moulds.
Serve it warm or at room temperature.
Mini Cottage Cheese Savoury Tarts
Ingredients
Ingredients
- Flour-2 1/2 cups
- Salt-1 tsp
- Sugar-1/3 cup
- Cold Butter-1 cup
- Ice Cold Water-1/4 – 1/2 cup
For The Filling
- Crumbled Paneer / Cottage Cheese - 2 cups
- Red Chilly Powder-1 tsp
- Coriander Powder-1 tsp
- Roasted Cumin Powder-1/4 tsp
- Salt-to taste
- Amchur/ Dry Mango Powder- 1/2 tsp
- Milk-3-4 tbs
Instructions
For The Pastry Crust
- In a bowl mix together flour, salt and sugar.
- Cube cold butter and add it to the flour mixture.
- With the tips of fingers rub the flour and butter until the butter is broken into pea sized pieces.
- Add in 1/4 cup of cold water and mix with a fork. Do not knead.
- Now add extra water to bring the dough together.
- Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour.
Arranging The Tarts
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Remove the pastry dough from fridge and divide it into equal portions. Place one dough portion in a muffin mould and press it to create a slightly thin cup. Trim off excess dough.
- Mix all the ingredients given for the filling and fill the pastry dough cups with it.
- Bake the tarts until the crust starts browning. It may take 20-30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow it to cool.
- When the tarts are warm to touch, with the help of a small spatula, remove it from the moulds.
- Serve it warm or at room temperature.
Dear Gayatri
I have been following your blog for some time now. I had purchased your recipe book but am unable to download as per instructions provided by lulu.com. I have emailed to them a couple of times but am still unable to download. Is there anyone who can assist? Or has anyone else had this problem?
Kind regards-Leena
Thank you Leena. Are you trying to download it in your android device? If so there will be a ebook reader app. You can try to open it. Or check your download folder. No one had issues so far. Even I had problems while downloading first because I didn’t know where to look for the book in my phone. Then I read the manual and tried again. But if the problem persists, please mail me with your purchase details and I will mail lulu.
Dear Gayathri can I use puff pastry sheet for tart….
Yes, definitely. It would be amazing.