I’d been dealing with a cranky client all week and was exhausted. I wanted a nice gourmet meal, but at the same time I didnt want to leave the house (ever felt that way?). So I used what I had on hand to make this gourmet tasting, gourmet looking, cheesy tart…just what I needed after a stressful day! The gorgeous wedge of french comte cheese Sanjeev picked up a few days ago was simply spectacular in this savory tart.

Comte is a Gruyere type French cheese made from cows milk. Comte is made only with spring and summer milk. I absolutely love this cheese. Actually, I love all cheeses, but I have extra love for Comte. Its slightly sweet, somewhat soft, and melts beautifully.

If you dont like or cant find Comte cheese..

Substitutes for Comte cheese: use Gruyere or fontina instead of Comte. Or if you want to spend less, try a mix of mozzarella and parmesan.

The tarts smelled sooo good in the oven, we were getting hungry quickly! We snacked on the ingredients while waiting for the tarts to bake.

This is a rather heavy, cheesy tart, so I made it in individual mini tart/pie pans. A mini tart along with a salad was a good portion size. If you dont have mini tart/pie tins, you can make this as one large tart and cut it into wedges.

We absolutely loved the saltine cracker crust – it was easy, smelled heavenly, and very yummy!

Broccoli, Baby Potato and Comte (Gruyere) Cheese Tarts in Saltine Cracker Crust: Recipe

makes 6 mini tarts

4oz or 5 small baby potatoes (or use a medium baking potato instead)
1/2 cup low fat milk
1 teaspoon flour
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
3/4 cup comte or gruyere cheese, cut into tiny cubes
1 cup broccoli florets, chopped
2 tablespoons parsley
salt and pepper (keep in mind the cheese, mustard, saltines are all already salty!)

for saltine cracker crust

4oz or 1 sleeve of saltine crackers
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2-3/4 cup hot water

Pre-heat oven to 375f.

Wrap the potatoes in a paper towel and micrrowave for 2 minutes or till half cooked. Set aside.

In a bowl, whisk together the milk, flour, and dijon mustard. Then add the cheese, broccoli florets, potatoes, parsley, salt and freshly cracked black pepper and mix well.

To make the saltine cracker crust, place the saltine crackers in a food processor and crush them to a powder. You should get about 1 1/2 cups of crushed saltines. Place this in a bowl, add melted butter and hot water and stir till it comes together like a dough. Now press the saltine cracker crust dough into a non-stick pie or tart pan. Press down on the crust to compact it and also push it up the edges of the pan.

Pour the cheese, broccoli and potato mixture into the tart/pie pan with the saltine crust. Place the pan on a foil lined baking sheet and bake on 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or just till the top of the tart starts to turn golden. Cool tarts a little, then gently lift them off the mould using a knife. Serve tart warm with a salad of your choice.

 I had a really stressful week. When I was talking about it to my friend K, she suggested two things. Go over to her place for dinner. Or make something decadent and post it on my blog. (Notice how both involve food?!). I went with option two. What can be more stress busting than cooking (and then making S clean up)? What can make a girl happier than a luscious raspberry mouse tart with dark chocolate ganache hidden inside?! And what can make me forget my worries that reading your comments Stress be gone!

 You can whip up this dessert rather quickly because there is no baking involved. The only time consuming step is chilling the tartlets for atleast 3 hours so that the filling sets.
 

I used store bought graham cracker mini tarts. You can use whatever pie crust you like. An oreo crust will be great too.

 The filling is raspberry jello powder or agar agar, mixed with a quick raspberry jam (recipe below), cream cheese and cream.

Whip everything together. Pour a little chocolate ganache at the bottom of the pie/tart. Then pour the raspberry mousse in and let it set.

You cant see the chocolate layer, but once you cut into the tartlet, there is a nice little chocolate surprise waiting for you.

Regular mousse involves eggs. But this recipe is eggless. You still get a wonderful, creamy yet light mousse from the addition of fruit pectin and jello powder or agar agar.

This is a ridiculously easy tart to make. Just chop up some peaches, toss in sugar and spices, arrange the peaches on puff pastry and bake off. That’s it!

Ree from the Pioneer Woman blog made a puff pastry apple tart. The minute I saw that recipe, I bookmarked it. But I used peaches instead of apples because I have a ton peaches from my recent (and very enjoyable) peach picking trip. Thanks Ree, for a quick, easy and delicious dessert idea!

 If you don’t have peaches, substitute with any fresh fruits you have. Plums, figs, cherries, apples(of course!), mixed berries will all turn out delicious in this tart.

Before you get started on this recipe, head on over to my ‘how to pit a peach’ post for an easy way to pit fresh peaches. Once you’ve done that, you are ready to proceed with this recipe.

 Toss the pitted, chopped peaches with sugar, cinnamon, allspice and a little salt. A pinch of salt always makes sweet stuff taste better.

 I cut the peaches into thin wedges. I didn’t peel them. But I think I will next time. I didn’t like the texture of the peach skin after it baked. 

Lay out a puff pastry sheet cut into thirds on a baking sheet. Arrange the peaches on the puff pastry. Bake in the oven.

Don’t have puff pastry? Try making your own tart dough! Here is a recipe from David Lebovitz.

 The tart will be done in about 20 minutes. The peaches will be sweet and juicy sitting on the crispy, flaky, warm puff pastry.