Office Holiday Potluck?! Worry Not, Make This Onion Bacon Tart!

It's that time of the year again, where you get to show off a bit and exhibit the inner Domestic God/Goddess to coworkers. There's nothing like an elegant looking savory tart to cement your status as the office's culinary wizard. The smell of bacon and onion cooking together is probably one of the most intoxicating scents in the world; in fact, even after a day, the smell still lingers in my apartment and it makes me hungry for more onion tart...

Recipe
For the tart shell
1 2/3 cup flour
3/4 cup butter (that's 1 1/2 sticks, and should be very cold)
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons ice water
tart pan with removable bottom (mine is ~12")


For the filling
3 large onions
12 strips of bacon
4 large eggs
1 cup half and half
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

To be honest, aside from bragging rights, there's not much to gain by making the pastry dough from scratch. I've experienced a few baking disasters when it comes to making biscuits and pie dough, so this was more of a facing-my-demons type of challenge than making a superior tart. These days, all supermarkets carry frozen puff pastry and the quality are quite good. If you to decide to take a short cut and use pre-made dough, go ahead! I wont' judge, I promise :).


Now, for the sticklers out there, away we go on our pastry adventure! First things first, the butter needs to be cold -- North-Pole-frozen-solid cold, breaking-up-with-your-significant-other-over-text cold. Well, you get the idea... In my previous baking recipes, I always call for room temperature butter, but in this case, no planning ahead is needed! Just take the butter out of the fridge right before you start on the dough. For the ice water, I put a small bowl of water in the freezer when I start on the tart shell and take it out when I'm ready to use it. The reason why everything needs to be cold is because cold butter stays solid when the flour coats it. When baking in the oven, these little butter "cells" melt, thereby creating a flakey, airy crust. Cut the butter into small cubes, around 1/2 inches. 

Mmmm... delicious butter

Fit the food processor with the dough blade. In case you're wondering, that's the other blade that came with your food processor (and probably never used before) that has stubby, not very sharp blades. Toss in the butter and then sift in the flour and salt. You don't technically need to sift the flour, but I wanted to do everything I could to ensure the dough is light. Pulse the butter and flour mixture until you get a rough, mealy texture. There will be some bigger pieces of butter in there, that's OK. The blend doesn't have to be uniform. If you don't have a food processor, cut the butter and flour in a large bowl with a fork or pastry blender.

It's fine to leave some bigger pieces of butter in there

Once the butter and flour are blended, drizzle the ice water evenly over the mixture. Pulse until just combined. Use a fork to mix the water with the butter and flour if you don't have a food processor. Grab a handful of the dough to see if the dough is sticky enough to form a ball. If not, add more cold water, half a tablespoon at a time. Be careful not to over mix as that will make the dough tough. My dough was super crumbly even though I added around 6 to 7 tablespoons of water. The recipe originally called for 2 cups of flour, I believe cutting the flour by 1/3 of a cup should make the dough more manageable. 

The dough will be very crumbly

Empty the mixture onto a clean surface. I used a large baking tray to minimize cleanup and it worked pretty well. Carefully, work the mixture into a ball by pressing the crumbly mixture together with your hands. Try not to handle the dough too much if possible because that will make it dense. I had a lot of trouble getting the dough to behave and lumping together (probably because I used too much flour). Be patient and gentle. If it really refuses to clump, add a bit more water. I actually figured out a nifty way to do this by lining the baking tray with a large piece of plastic wrap. I gather the plastic sheet into a satchel, push down on the dough to form a ball that way. Not sure if that's cheating or not, but hey, it works! Put the bundle of joy in the fridge for an hour to cool.

Aiya, what a mess, but don't give up!

My ball of love, all wrapped up

Preheat the oven to 400º. Take the dough out of the fridge and flour a clean working surface (aka the baking tray). Roll out the dough into around a 14-15 inch circle, approximately a quarter of an inch thick. Fit the pastry into the tart pan, pressing down on the corners to ensure a tight fit. Cut off any excess dough on the edges of the tart with a sharp knife and prick a bunch of holes in the dough with either a knife or fork. The reason why we do this is to let any steam trapped under the dough to pass through and prevent any bubbles in our tart shell. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. If you have pie weights, use them. I don't, so around half way through baking, I checked the tart and pricked the dough a few more times to let out the steam when it bubbled up. When done, take out of the oven and let cool.

My first tart shell! How exciting :)

My pretty, buttery baby

While the tart bakes, we can start on the filling. This is a walk in the park compared to making the tart shell. Nothing but running downhill from here, folks! Cut the bacon slices into thin slivers. Heat a large pan or pot over medium high heat and crisp up the bacon. It'll take around half a minute for so for the bacon to release its own fat. Keep cooking until most of the fat has rendered out and the bacon becomes crispy and brown, around 3-5 minutes. While the bacon cooks, cut the onions into thin slices. Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon from the pan and reserve for later. Discard most of the bacon grease, leaving just enough to sauté the onions.

That's a lot of fat!!

Nice and cripsy

Toss the onions into the pot and sauté. I know, it's a lot of onion, but trust me, that stuff cooks down to a fraction of its original volume. Let the onions sweat on medium with the lid on, stirring occasionally, until they're very soft and become pale yellow in color, around 15-20 minutes. When they're done, stir in the bacon bits and cook for around 2-3 more minutes without the lid. Season with salt and pepper, set aside to cool.

Smells like heaven

While the onion and bacon mixture cools, in a large bowl, combine the half and half, nutmeg and eggs. Whisk until incorporated and add in the cooled onions and bacon. Make sure the onions and bacon are completely cooled so you don't cook the eggs when mixing with the half and half blend. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture into the tart shell all the way to the rim. Using a fork, spread out the onions to make sure the custard is even. If there is any filling left over, reserve for a frittata later. Bake in a 400º oven for 30-35 minutes, until the top is golden and the custard is set. Let cool before cutting and serve at room temperature.

Almost done...

And voila!

Reflection
I brought this savory tart to a holiday party and it was very popular. The crust probably still needed a bit more work. It was more crispy than flakey in some spots, but hey, a little texture never hurts anyone. I'll have to look around for other dough recipes to see if I can find one that works for me. I think many people use shortening in additional to butter in the dough, I should experiment with that. I've been wanting to get a tart pan for a while and I want to thank my bestie Nahal for the William Sonoma gift card!! Lots more tart-y adventures from here :).