Potato Tart with Bacon, Caramelized Onions, and Roasted Red Peppers

I bought some new pans a while ago and have been dying to try them. Big surprise. Jo bought MORE new baking pans.
I know... I know... it’s an addiction.
Anyway, they are really super cool tart pans. A long rectangular one, a big square one, and 3 stacking circle ones. And Sue bought me the new Martha Stewart Pies book. This was not a coincidence. Once Sue gave me the book I knew I had to go get some tart pans to try the recipes.

The crust recipe is from Martha’s book. The filling is my invention. It turned out great.

I didn’t know how many potatoes I would need to fill 2 pans so I half-cooked about 10 potatoes. Turns out about 2 thinly sliced were lots.

Now I have to come up with a recipe to use up 8, half baked potatoes.

*Sigh*

I’m thinking Shepherd’s Pie.

Potato Tart with Bacon, Caramelized Onions, and Roasted Red Peppers

Crust Ingredients

2 ½ cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 cup butter, chilled

¼ - ½ cup ice water

Crust Directions

Mix together flour, salt, and sugar in food processor. Cut in chilled butter. Process until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add enough water to pull dough together. Start with ¼ cup and add more, 1 Tbsp at a time, until right consistency.

Pat into flat disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in fridge for at least an hour.

Roll out and lay in pan. Press up sides of pans.

.

 Filling Ingredients

2 large potatoes, skins left on, cooked in microwave for 2 – 3 minutes to soften a bit

1 lb bacon, diced, fried

1 large onion, caramelized using 2 Tbsp of leftover bacon grease.

1 roasted red pepper, diced

3 egg yolks + 1 egg

1 cup heavy cream

¼ cup milk

¼ cup cream cheese, softened

½ cup crumbled cheese of your choice(We used Swiss)

 Filling Directions

Preheat oven to 400.

Slice potatos into VERY thin slices. If you have a mandolin slicer then that would be the best way. (I don’t have one. I had to use a very sharp knife and use as much patience as I have and slice them super-de-duper thin.)

Layer ingredients into pie shell in following order:

Onions

Bacon

Roasted red pepper

Potatoes

Layers of onion, bacon, and red pepper

Layer of potatoes. Don't they look pretty?

 Beat cream cheese until it is smooth, add in eggs one at a time. Slowly beat in cream and milk. Slowly pour over layers in crust. Make sure it fills all the nooks and crannies but does NOT go higher than the dough on the sides.

Bake in preheated oven until golden brown. About 30 minutes. Center should be set. Sprinkle with crumbled cheese and let sit in oven until cheese melts.

 Depending on what pan you use this makes between 1 large tart or 2 medium sized tarts. Cooking time will vary depending on pan size as well.

. This was a ”what do I have available” invention. It turned out to be a lovely blending of flavours.

.

A couple of things of note – (1) I did not need to prebake the crust as a lot of tarts call for. (2) I let the cooked tart cool to room temp, covered it with plastic wrap, and set it in the fridge and we had it at work the next morning for breakfast, just heated in the microwave and it was just as delicious.

I really like the fact that I did not have to prebake the crust. The whole”lining the crust with parchment paper and filling it with beans or pie weights” is a pain. I will do it if I have to but I prefer not to. I hate prebaking because of the shrinking of the dough. It makes me sad.