Puff Pastry Onion Tart with Pear and Blue Cheese

Amazing puff pastry onion tart topped with golden caramelized onions, pear slices, and sharp blue cheese. It’s made with only a couple of ingredients that provide bold flavors. This savory onion tart is sure to impress at any elegant party and also makes a delicious appetizer that you can serve just for dinner with a soup.

Ingredients:

• Onions – I used yellow onions. White onions can also be used. I don’t like using sweet onions for caramelizing because then they’re just too sweet and won’t work well in this recipe since we’re also using a sweet pear.
• Clarified butter – You can use regular butter, olive oil, or vegetable frying oil to cook the onions, but I prefer the clarified butter. It doesn’t burn so quickly as regular butter but adds an amazing flavor.
• Pear – use unripe or just slightly ripe fruit. Ripe fruit will fall apart, be mushy, and will release too much moisture which will make the puff pastry soggy. Alternatively, you can use an apple, but I prefer this tart with the pear.
• Blue cheese – it’s best to use sharp blue cheese, better is semi-hard and crumbly rather than creamy. Both will work though. I used cow’s milk cheese similar to Roquefort cheese.
• Puff pastry – it’s best to use all-butter puff pastry – it just tastes best. In my opinion, there is no comparison (in terms of taste) between palm oil-puff pastry and butter-puff pastry.
• Heavy cream or egg wash. I usually use the egg wash (an egg beaten with a tablespoon of milk) to brush the edges of tarts, but a tablespoon of heavy cream works well too. It helps to add a golden color to the pastry. There’s is no sense to take one whole egg when you need to use just a little.

Caramelizing the onions:

I wish I could write that caramelizing onions takes just a couple of minutes and this tart will be ready in no time. To properly caramelize the onions you need at least 45 minutes, and often 50-60 minutes. This step can not, unfortunately, be speeded up. For this recipe, I’m caramelizing the onions for only 25 minutes, because we’re baking them in the oven for another 25 minutes, which finishes their caramelization.

How to make it step by step:

STEP 1: Caramelize the onions: Peel 3 medium yellow onions (14 oz/400g) and cut into thin slices. Heat 2 Tbsp clarified butter in a big frying pan or pot. Add the onions. You can start cooking them over medium-high / medium heat, and then gradually lower the heat as they start to get color to medium-low / low heat. Don’t cook the onions over too high heat or they will burn and be bitter. Stir from time to time (at the beginning rarely, later more often, and at the end very often). The onions should be partially caramelized and it should take about 30 minutes. We don’t need to fully caramelize the onions (this would take about 50-60 mins) because they will be baked in the oven. Unfortunately, this process can not be speeded up. Take the onions off the pan and leave to cool.

STEP 2: Preheat the oven to 375°F / 190°C / Gas Mark 5, no fan.

STEP 3: Cut 1/2 of a large pear in half, core the quarters and cut into thin slices. You can leave the skin on.

STEP 4: Take the dough out of the fridge. You will need 1 (8.5oz/240g) sheet puff pastry. Score the dough: with the tip of a sharp knife, score through the top layers of the puff pastry by running the knife along all four sides of the dough (leave about 1/2 inch / 1.5 cm border). Do not cut all the way through the dough. Transfer the pastry, along with the parchment paper that comes with it to a baking sheet. Prick the dough (not the borders) with a fork.

STEP 5: Place the pear slices on top of the dough.

STEP 6: Divide the caramelized onions evenly over the pear slices.

STEP 7: Crumble blue cheese on top.

STEP 8: Brush the edges of the tart with heavy cream or make the egg wash (whisk 1 egg with 1 Tbsp of milk) and brush the pastry with it.

STEP 9: Bake the tart in a preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until puffed and golden.

The most important tips when working with puff pastry:

• Don’t top the puff pastry with too many ingredients – it won’t puff properly and be soggy.
• It is very important that the filling is cold before putting it on the puff pastry (make sure to cool your onions).
• The dough itself must be cold. Take it out of the fridge only when you have all the other ingredients ready.
• If you’re using frozen puff pastry, you must first thaw it in the fridge overnight. Don’t thaw it quickly on the counter or it can crack.

Storage:

This caramelized onion tart tastes best fresh, just after baking, when it’s still slightly warm. After about 2 hours it’s won’t be crispy anymore. You can warm it up in the oven, it will be still delicious but just not as crispy as freshly baked one. Store it in the fridge, tightly wrapped in plastic foil, then reheat.

How to serve this tart:

• It’s great for parties – cut it into squares and serve as an appetizer (finger food). You could also bake small round tartalettes – they look prettier but it’s more work and you get lots of pastry scraps (you could always roll them in cinnamon sugar and bake as cookies, similar to palmier cookies).
• For a more elegant party, you could serve it as an appetizer with a simple green salad on the side.
• I sometimes serve it with soup for dinner. Carrot coconut soup or pumpkin and ginger soup with orange would be perfect.

Other savory puff pastry recipes that you may like:

• Puff pastry strudel with vegetables and cheese
• Puff pastry cheese straws
• Asparagus in puff pastry with ham and cheese
• Cheese sun-dried tomato and olive puff pastry pinwheels
• Puff pastry mushroom tart

Here you can find all my puff pastry appetizers.

Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!