Crisp and Savoury Sweet Potato Tartlets
Make these tarts in mini muffin tins and they're a tasty bite to accompany a pre-dinner drink. Use a larger 4 inch tart pan and they make a delicious Fall side dish.
The crispy pastry puffs up quite a bit so be sure to roll it out as thinly as you possibly can. Make sure you take the pastry resting time (an hour or overnight) into account.
Crisp and Savoury Sweet Potato Tartlets
Yield: Makes 18 mini-tarts
Ingredients:
For Crispy Pastry:
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1/3 lb butter, cut into small pieces
Cold water (see directions for amount, which varies)
For Savoury Sweet Potato Filling:
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
½ cup sour cream.
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon chopped sage
1 tablespoon chopped thyme leaves
1 tablespoon chili paste, optional
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons cumin
Salt and pepper, to taste
Thyme and sage leaves for garnish, if desired.
Directions:
1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour salt and sugar and pulse a couple of times to mix and fluff.
2. Add half the butter pieces and process until well combined, then add the rest of the butter pulsing until the mixture looks like fine crumbs.
3. With the motor running drizzle the cold water into the flour and butter mixture a little bit at a time just until it starts to come together as a dough.
4. Dump the pastry dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly with your hands until it's just barely a consistent mass.
5. Shape the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour or preferably overnight.
6. When ready to continue, pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.
7. Simmer the sweet potatoes in lightly salted water until soft but not mushy. Drain and let cool.
8. Remove the pastry dough from the refrigerator, unwrap it and place on lightly floured secure surface. Using the edge of a rolling pin, smack the dough a few times to flatten it. Rotate the disk 90 degrees and smack again. Flip turn and smack, repeating until the dough is thin and compliant enough to roll.
9. Roll out the dough as thinly as possible and cut out circles about 30 percent larger than the muffin tins (or tart pans). Line the muffin tins with the pastry rounds, prick the dough with a fork, line with baking paper and fill with baking weights or rice to inhibit puffing.
10. Blind bake the pastry for 10 minutes, then remove the weights and continue to bake for another 5 minutes until the pastry is golden. Remove the shells from the oven and let cool.
11. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the cooled sweet potatoes with the sour cream, eggs, sage, thyme, chili paste (if using), honey, cumin and salt and pepper. Process until smooth and batter-like.
12. Fill the pastry shells three quarters full with the filling and top each with the sage and thyme leaves.
13. Bake in 400º F oven until pastry is golden and the filling is set, about 20 to 25 minutes.
