My Blue Cheese Puff Pastry Tarts will be a hit at your next party! Flaky, buttery, puff pastry contains a delicious, creamy, blue cheese filling. Their ease of preparation and great flavour means they are amongst my go-to appetisers. Be sure to make plenty – they are always popular!
Remove the pastry from the freezer shortly before preparing the filling.(Don’t remove it too early or it will be difficult to cut neatly. The pastry will have a better texture if it is still chilled when placed in the oven.)
Grease the patty pan tin (or muffin tin if using) well – see Note 4.
Add the blue cheese, cream, egg, chives and freshly ground black pepper to the bowl of a food processor and blend until thoroughly mixed.
When the pastry has just defrosted, using a 6 cm (2 ¼ inch) cookie cutter for patty pan tins or 7 ½ cm (3 inch) cutter for muffin tins, cut rounds of pastry and put into prepared muffin tin/patty pans, gently pushing the pastry down into place.You will cut 12 rounds for the patty pan or 9 for the muffin tin.
Evenly distribute the filling between the pastry cases. This is about 1 tablespoon (4 teaspoons) for the patty pans and 1 ½ tablespoons (6 teaspoons) for the muffin tins.
Bake in the oven for about 12 minutes in the patty pans or 12 - 15 in the muffin tins. The time will vary depending on the heat of your oven but bake until the filling puffs and becomes golden brown.
Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before removing and placing on a wire rack to cool and store – or serve warm immediately.
If making them in advance, reheat in a pre-heated 180 degrees C (350 F) oven for 5 - 7 minutes.
Notes
My puff pastry sheet measured 24 cm X 24 cm (9 ½″) square. If the puff pastry defrosts before you have prepared the filling, place the puff pastry in the refrigerator until ready to use. It must remain chilled.
It is not necessary to use expensive cheese. I use a wedge of Danish Blue Cheese, readily available in supermarkets.
The Australian tablespoon is 20 ml or 4 teaspoons. In many other countries, the tablespoon is 15 ml or 3 teaspoons. If necessary, please adjust your measurements.
I have used a patty pan tin. This is a baking tin with small round individual indentations in which cakes or pastries are cooked. To make in the patty pans I use a 6 cm (2 ¼ inch) cookie cutter. I make 12 pastries from 1 sheet of pastry. To do this, I use some of the offcuts to patch the last few circles. If your cutter is slightly larger you may need part of another sheet. You can re-freeze the remainder. If you are using a muffin tin, use a 7 ½ cm (3 inch) cookie cutter. You will make 9 pastries from one sheet of pastry.
Please note, the nutritional information is based on one tart. This has been calculated based on 12 tarts made in a patty pan tin. The nutritional information is an estimate only.