Gruyere Cheese Tart Marmalade onions

This Gruyere Cheese Tart has to be one of my favourite recipes. There is not much better than short crusted golden pastry with a creamy Gruyere filling. The onions are marmalade infused and the perfect match. Not diet food but don’t let that stop you…

This Gruyere Cheese Tart is the recipe I promised you last week after the video on How to make basic Savoury Pastry. It’s as good as it looks

One of my favourite cheeses is Gruyere. If I am going to be really specific I love Comte the most. This is a French Gruyere style cheese made with unpasteurised cows milk. I will usually choose this over any cheese at any time. A good Comte has a fruitiness and almost sweetness with a nutty flavour I find irresistible. It’s all due to the freshness of the milk, the season- winter or summer it is made and the cheesemaker. The highland cows eat herbs and flowers in their grass in the summer and lush green grasses in the winter so the flavour of the milk changes and this plays a big part in the taste of the finished cheese. Comte is aged in giant 30 kilo wheels.

Of course it might be a little bit rich to suggest that you would buy Comte to make this tart but if you do you will not regret it. You can make it with Gruyere from Switzerland or even a Tasmanian Gruyere instead. If either of these are hard to track down you can use cheddar. It won’t be as fruity/ nutty but it will still be the best tart you have ever tasted.  At one time a couple of years back I had a job writing recipes for a cheese distributor and I had unlimited Comte and Gruyere to play with so I originally made this with Comte. Mix and match the cheeses if you like.

You can buy Gruyere (Australian and Swiss) in most big department stores in Australia and undoubtedly in the UK. In the US you’ll definitely find it at Wholefoods.

So this type of cheese goes very well with sweet and sour type flavours. Balsamic vinegar, sweet and sour onions, sweet and sour cherries and quince style pastes. That’s why this cheese tart is heavenly with Marmalade onions. They are just really slow cooked onions that are finished with a few spoons of marmalade from that jar sitting in the fridge. You could use other left over jam too. Try cherry or plum jam or you could also use a quince or guava paste in it’s place too. I used left over orange marmalade and loved the faint orange flavour it gave.

Just a little note. I used white balsamic in my onions and an aged balsamic. Mine are both have a balanced sweet/vinegar bite. They are condimento (pure reduced must based balsamic) so if you don’t have a naturally sweet aged (which is ok) you will need to perhaps add only half of the vinegar to yours or possibly add a tablespoon of sugar to mimic the sweetness of  my balsamics. You could also replace it with a caramelised {balsamic} if you have that. The colour will be darker but that is no problem.

Cook till only just set too. This ensures the tart is creamy and meltingly good. The recipe for these just a touch sweet walnuts is attached too.

Gruyere Cheese Tart marmalade onions

You'll need one recipe of basic savoury pastry to make this tart. It needs to be blind baked and ready to be used. This cheese tart can really be made with any cheese and the same method so why not give it a bit of a try with the ingredients you have. It's kind of a glorified quiche of course... but don't make it in a deep tin. It needs a nice shallow tin and minimal cooking.

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Servings 6

Ingredients

  

• 200 gm Gruyere Cheese grated
• 300 ml cream thickened or heavy (1 1/2 cups)
• 3 whole egg yolks large
• 1 kg onions sliced onions
• 50 gm butter
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons orange marmalade
• 100 ml white balsamic or Caramelised balsamic
• 20 ml aged balsamic or plain balsamic if using caramelised above
• 50 gm walnuts
• 40 gm sugar

Instructions

 

The Tart

• My tart case measures 35 cm x 13 cm (13 x 5 in) You could use a 24 cm (9 in) round tin or a 28 x 18 cm (11 x 7 inch). Just make sure they have a removable bottom Once you have a baked tart case:
• Put 1/2 the grated cheese onto the bottom of the tart case.
• Put the egg yolks, cream and the rest of the cheese into a bowl with some salt and pepper and mix well. Pile the mixture into the tart case along with the other cheese.
• Put the tart into the oven and bake 15-20 minutes or till just set (it may be a bit wobbly when shaken)

To make the onions:

• Heat a pot and add the olive oil and butter. Let it melt then add the onions and cook on low till starting to wilt and colour stirring frequently. ( the bottom may catch a little. Just don't scrape it.)
• When the onions are golden in colour add the marmalade and the white balsamic vinegar. Continue to cook till the onions become a deeper golden colour and look kind of glossy.
• Add a Tablespoon of sweet balsamic to finish.

To make the walnuts

• Heat a non stick frypan and add the walnuts. Toss over a medium heat till starting to colour. Once they are lightly coloured turn off the heat and sprinkle over the sugar tossing to coat. The sugar will melt with the heat and coat the walnuts. Cool on a plate
• Serve the tart wth a little extra balsamic ( sweet or aged)

Notes

You can substitute Swiss Cheese for Gruyere