Oven-Roasted Pepper Tart with Prosciutto and Goat Cheese

This Oven-Roasted Pepper Tart with Prosciutto and Goat Cheese takes advantage of the fresh peppers available right now. Oven roasting the peppers brings out the sweet flavor and adds so much to the texture of the tart. 

If you love the sweetened flavor of roasted peppers, you definitely need to make this tart. I slow-roasted the peppers in the oven, placing the pan on the middle rack with the broiler on. This chars the skin of the pepper and also softens and roasts the meat of the pepper over time. 

Maple Walnut Tart

This Maple Walnut Tart is a delicious twist and change of pace from the usual holiday pecan pie. 

The tart, with the combination of the toasted walnuts and pure maple syrup, just might become your new favorite holiday dessert. 

Pear and Almond Tart

This pear and almond tart is an elegant, sophisticated, and delicious dessert that is also super easy to prepare. 

This pear tart begins with an almond flour crust that is par-baked. Then, you spread on a frangipane-style filling, then tuck in some sliced poached or canned pears, brush the pears with butter, and sprinkle everything with sparkling sugar before baking.

Chocolate Cherry Tart

Make this chocolate cherry tart for your next dessert - it's like a chocolate covered cherry in a slice of pie. 

The combined flavors of chocolate and cherries is a match made in heaven. The dark chocolate and the tart cherry flavors come together to create a slightly sophisticated dessert that everyone will adore. 

Cranberry Crackle Tart

This cranberry crackle tart is a delicious combination of sweet meringue and tart fresh cranberries on a sweet cookie crust. 

The tart also had a layer of sour cherry jam (you can use any jam, such as raspberry, blackberry, or strawberry) spread on the sweet pastry crust. This helps keep the cranberry juices from soaking through. 

Sweet Potato Tart

This sweet potato tart is a wonderful alternative to pumpkin pie. It's baked in a sweet cookie crust, and spiced with the flavors of fall. It's Southern through and through.

This post is sponsored in conjunction with Flavors of Fall Week and I'm thrilled to be participating. Keep an eye out all week for more fall-themed recipes. I received complimentary product from our sponsors to aid in the creation of the Flavors of Fall recipes. All opinions are mine alone.


While sweet potato pie is often compared to pumpkin pie, there are some differences. It's richer, denser, and more hearty. Plus, it has such a bright, gorgeous color.

Bittersweet Chocolate Caramel Pecan Tarts

These Bittersweet Chocolate Caramel Pecan Tarts are decadent and delicious. They are seriously elegant, and perfect for a small party or a romantic dinner for two.

This recipe for chocolate caramel pecan tarts makes two 4 inch tarts. It's up to you as to how many servings that is. I like a quarter piece, and Mr. Kitchen can easily polish off half a tart (he has the skinny gene). The recipe can also be easily scaled and adapted for a muffin tin or a larger tart. Just bring your geometry skills.

Cranberry-Almond Shortbread Tart

This cranberry-almond shortbread tart features a shortbread crust flavored with almonds and cornmeal, and filled with a tart homemade cranberry jam brightened with lemon juice and apricot jam.

This cranberry tart is easy to make ahead. First, you can make the dough and refrigerate it up to two days or freeze it for up to two weeks.

Air Fryer Cheesy Summer Vegetable Tart

This air fryer cheesy vegetable tart is wonderful with summer vegetables such as zucchini, pattypan squash, egg plant, tomatoes, and crook neck squash.

This cheesy vegetable tart, along with a salad, is a wonderful lunch for 3 to 4 people.

For the vegetables, I used a small trombetta squash from my cousin's garden along with a small tomato. The trombetta is so sweet and fresh tasting. My cousin's hobby is suburban farming, and she is incredible. I'm so fortunate to be a recipient of the bounty of her garden.

Apple Tartlets with Almond Crunch

These Apple Tartlets with an Almond Crunch Topping are so elegant, and yet surprisingly easy to make.

These Apple Tartlets, topped with a mixture of sliced almonds, sugar, and butter that caramelizes while the tarts are baking are both sophisticated and delicious.

Asparagus and Goat Cheese Tart

This asparagus and goat cheese tart is the perfect lunch, or when cut into smaller pieces, a delicious party appetizer.

With a store bought puff pastry shell, this asparagus and goat cheese tart is easy to assemble and bake, yet it looks so elegant.

Chocolate Tart with a Shortbread Crust

This chocolate tart with a shortbread crust is so rich and decadent. Picture a layer of shortbread, topped with a layer of creamy bittersweet chocolate, and a layer of chocolate whipped cream. 

This creamy bittersweet chocolate tart is also super easy to make. The shortbread crust comes together with a quick mix with your fingertips, and the chocolate filling takes about five minutes to mix and pour into the cookie-lined tart pan before baking.

Smoked Salmon, Dill, and Horseradish Tartlets

These Smoked Salmon, Dill, and Horseradish Tartlets capture the wonderful flavors of smoked fish. 

These Smoked Salmon, Dill, and Horseradish Tartlets completely blew me away. The recipe creates just four little tartlets, all of which I wanted to keep to myself. I did share with Mr. Kitchen, and he agreed that these are pretty delicious.

Caramel Custard Tart with Sliced Almonds and Pumpkin Seeds

This Caramel Custard Tart with Sliced Almonds and Pumpkin Seeds is so completely decadent and rich. It can also be quite the showstopper with its deep caramel color and the toasted nuts and seeds. I used toasted and salted pumpkin seeds in this tart to compliment the sweet caramel, which turned out to be a great choice. 

Countdown to 2015: My 10 Best Dessert Recipes of 2014

These are my top 10 dessert posts from 2014. When I compiled this list, I realized I need to expand my dessert world. There are an awful lot of cookies on this list. It's probably because there are just two of us in this house.

With cookies, I can either pack the leftovers into my grandkid's lunches and take the rest to work. They also keep longer.

My 10 favorite dessert recipes of 2014 (that I made) are:

• Buttery ginger shortbread cookies - I love, love, love shortbread.
• Glazed doughnut cookies - an Italian treat that can be decorated for any holiday.
• Chocolate espresso white chocolate chunk cookies - the name says it all.
• Vanilla sprinkle cookies - sprinkles!!!
• Chocolate coconut macadamia nut ice cream - I need to make more ice cream!
• Chocolate hazelnut sables - such an elegant little cookie.
• Witch fingers - scare the children.
• Peanut butter thumbprint cookies with salted peanut caramel filling - the caramel sauce is divine. 
• Cranberry crackle tart - this is so good. Go buy cranberries now and make this. 
• Chocolate cheesecake brownies - chocolate and cheesecake, right?

This year, Sarah of Fantastical Sharing of Recipes and Secret Recipe Club is hosting a round up some of the best recipes of 2014. Visit her blog to see what other bloggers have contributed to this dessert round up.

Alsatian Onion Tart | Tuesdays with Dorie

Alsation Onion Tart is, according to Dorie Greenspan in the book, Baking with Julia, a "flat, pizzalike galette covered to its very edge with meltingly tender..... mix of onions and bacon." It was a traditional Sunday supper dish in Alsace, to be served after church.

This tart is comprised of a puff pastry crust topped with a "soubise," a mixture of onions and bacon. The onions are simmered in chicken broth until softened, and then combined with cream. The bacon is boiled and then barely fried before being added to the tart. The original recipe calls for slab bacon. I used uncured sliced bacon instead, and was pretty happy with the results.

The original recipe also calls for four "very large" onions. I ended up with a lot of extra onion mixture after piling the onions onto the puff pastry. Two very large onions would probably be enough.

Alsatian Onion Tarts are typically round. I rolled mine into a rectangle. Why? It fit perfectly into my quarter sheet pan, which fit perfectly into my refrigerator overnight.

I totally loved the flavors of this tart. I had prepared all of the components (pastry, onions, and bacon) the day before, and baked the tart in the morning. It made an amazing late morning breakfast. Tasty!!

For this tart, you can either use store bought puff pastry, or make your own. Check out this post for how I actually made my own puff pastry!

Alsatian Onion Tart

Ingredients

8 ounces of chilled puff pastry scraps

4 very large onions, peeled and diced (or less, as mentioned above)

1 C chicken broth

3 T heavy cream

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 to 6 ounces sliced bacon

Instructions

1. Roll out the pastry scraps to a very thin 10 to 12 inch circle or equivalent rectangle. 
2. Place the pastry on a parchment lined baking sheet and prick the pastry with a fork all over. Don't scrimp on this as you want the dough to remain flat while baking. 
3. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
4. Place the onions into a large sauce pan with the chicken broth, and simmer for about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. The onions should be very soft. 
5. Let the onions cool. Drain the onions in a strainer to remove any extra liquid. Put them back into the sauce pan. Mix in the cream and salt and pepper to taste.
6. Cut the bacon slices into half inch pieces and place them in boiling water for one minute. Drain on paper towels.
7. Fry the bacon slices for 2 minutes in a hot pan. Drain on paper towels. 
8. Note: The pastry, onions, and bacon can be kept in the refrigerator overnight until you are ready to bake the tart.
9. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
10. Spread the onions over the dough, push the bacon pieces into the onion mixture. 
11. Bake the tart on the lower third of the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. 
12. Serve immediately. 

French Apple Tart | TWD

This week the Tuesdays with Dorie group is baking a French Apple Tart from page 379 of the book Baking with Julia (as in Julia Child) by Dorie Greenspan.

I've been on vacation for a couple of weeks and wanted to make something impressive to take to my colleagues who helped keep things running smoothly.

Impressive, right?

This recipe involves making a pie dough, an apple puree, and an apple flower thingy on the top of the puree. I made this tart all at once, but you can make the pie dough and apple puree in advance and assemble the whole thing a couple of days later. In fact, the dough is freezable.

I followed this recipe pretty much as described in the book. Each bake in the oven took longer that the author described, but that seems to be a pattern with this book. (Although I've checked it, I may need to re-check my oven's temperature...) The one thing I did differently, which was probably not necessary, was to brush the top of the tart with an apricot glaze. I was a little worried that the apple slices were too dry from the extended baking.

The dough is really flaky and contains no sugar, so the contrast between the dough and the apple puree is just amazing.

So here's how it's done...

Make a really flaky savory dough and blind bake it (cover it in parchment and fill with rice, dried beans, or pie weights) in a nine inch tart pan.

Make an apple puree with roasted apples... really just homemade chunky applesauce. I kept mine really chunky.

Spread the puree in the dough lined tart pan.

Top with a floret of very thinly sliced apples.

Bake until the edges if the apple slices are kind of burned.

Cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar, (or in my case, spread with an apricot glaze), slice, and enjoy.

To make the optional apricot glaze, melt apricot jam with apple juice or cider, and brush over the apples after removing the tart from the oven.

As a side note, this pie dough was so easy to work with. It is a mixture of pastry flour, salt, butter, chilled shortening, and ice water. It requires very little handling and is amazingly, amazingly flaky. The only issue is that without the addition of sugar, it takes longer to brown.

To see the actual recipe, visit Laws of the Kitchen.

I am definitely making this again.

Braeburn Apple and Almond Tart

It's fall. Apple season. While on a quest to find the ultimate apple pie recipe, I came across this French style tart.

I thought it would be the perfect sophisticated dessert.

Flaky phyllo pastry, butter, sugar, Braeburn apples, almond cream, and an apricot and cider reduction glaze.

I will admit that many sheets of phyllo dough were sacrificed to produce this tart (moment of silence in honor). It's been years since I have worked with phyllo. Thank goodness the package had way more sheets than I needed.

Oh, by the way, this recipe requires that you make the almond cream at least four hours in advance of assembling and baking this tart.

Braeburn Apple and Almond Tart

Adapted from Bon Appetit, serves 8 to 10