French Onion Tart Recipe | MasalaHerb.com (2024)

Published: · Modified: by Helene Dsouza

French Onion Tart Recipe | MasalaHerb.com (1)Helene Dsouza

Rustic budget-friendly french onion tart. This is a family dinner meal.

Total Time: 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

8 slices

4.4 from 7 votes

RECIPE

French Onion Tart Recipe | MasalaHerb.com (2)

This is a french family onion tart recipe. It's from northern France, the historical Picardi region.

You can prepare this savory tart within minutes or choose to make it from scratch.

French Onion Tart Recipe | MasalaHerb.com (3)
Jump to:
  • 📕 What is an onion tart?
  • 🔪 How to make it?
  • 🥣 Serving ideas
  • 🍱 Storing
  • 💭 FAQs
  • 👁️ More Recipes from the region
  • 📖 Recipe
  • 💬 Comments

📕 What is an onion tart?

An onion tart is a savory open pie-like pastry with an onion custard filling.

It's a traditional main course dish, served for lunch or dinner, in Northern France.

My mother's family (and this recipe) is from the Cathedral City Beauvais in Picardi; however, different variations may exist in Alsace, Lorraine, Normandi, and even Ils-de-France (Paris area).

🔪 How to make it?

Making this dish is rather easy if you have the pastry ready.

You can use a short crust pastry, a puff pastry or even a filo pastry (if that is what you have at home). Traditionaly a simple unsweetened puff pastry is used.

Here is roughly the procedure laid out so that you can decide if you want to make this today.

For more details see recipe at the bottom of the post with the quantity of the ingredients.

Step 1

Peel and slice onions.

Combine the custard filling ingredients.

French Onion Tart Recipe | MasalaHerb.com (5)

Step 2

Place rolled out pastry dough into a tart pan and cut off excess edges.

Make small holes with a fork into the pastry bottom and bake the pastry first alone (called blind baking).

Saute sliced onions in a pan until soft. Keep to cool for 5 minutes

French Onion Tart Recipe | MasalaHerb.com (6)

Step 3

Spread cooked onions in the semi baked tart crust.

Pour savory custard filling over the onion.

Bake onion tart until cooked through and serve hot.

French Onion Tart Recipe | MasalaHerb.com (7)

🥣 Serving ideas

We usually prepare our onion tart for lunch or dinner and serve it with a simple green salad and a vinaigrette.

You can serve it with any other lighter salad or a clear soup.

The tart is great with a wine such as a white wine or a rose.

A Riesling or Chardonnay tastes great with this onion tart.

🍱 Storing

Keep baked leftovers in your fridge and warm it up in the oven. You can keep it in the fridge for up to 2-3 days.

You can also freeze your tart. To do that, simply prepare the complete tart as per instructions but don't bake it at the end.

Just place the tart into your freezer and wait for it to get stone hard. Take out from the tart pan, wrap into foil and keep in the freezer.

Take out your frozen onion tart whenever you want to bake it and place it back into the same tart shape.

Don't thaw, just place it frozen into the oven but add extra baking time to the cooking process. About 15 minutes more.

You can keep a frozen tart for about 2-3 months in the freezer.

French Onion Tart Recipe | MasalaHerb.com (8)

💭 FAQs

Can I prepare the pastry without blind baking it?

Yes, you can. But add the baking time to your total time. That said it's better to partially bake the crust in the oven all alone (blind baking) so that the crust is properly baked through and not soft. But when I'm lazy or out of time (because I don't mind a softer crust), I just bake it all in one go without blind baking. #confession The choice is up to you!

Quich VS Savory Tart

A quiche is just a savory custard tart. Tarts can be sweet or savory but a quiche is always savory and always with a custard base. So, actually this onion tart could be called a quiche too.

👁️ More Recipes from the region

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📖 Recipe

French Onion Tart Recipe | MasalaHerb.com (11)

French Onion Tart Recipe

Rustic budget-friendly french onion tart. This is a family dinner meal.

4.43 from 7 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: French

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 slices

Calories: 192kcal

Recipe by: Helene Dsouza

Ingredients

  • 4-5 Onion medium, max. 2 inch broad
  • 1 Shortcrust OR puff pastry sheet *See Notes
  • 1 Tablespoon Butter to saute onion

For the savory custard filling:

US - Metric

Instructions

  • Peel and slice onion. Keep aside.

  • Prepare the savory custard filling. Combine egg, liquid cream, thyme, salt and black pepper in a bowl to a smooth consistency. Keep aside.

  • Place rolled out pastry dough into a tart pan and cut off extra on the edges. Poke into pastry with a fork to create small holes. That's so that the pastry doesn't deform when baking blind.

  • Preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit/ 200 Celsius.

  • Place a cut out round baking sheet, which is fitting into the tart base, and keep beans or pie weights on the round cut out baking sheet. Bake your crust alone (called baking blind) for 15 minutes at 400 Fahrenheit/ 200 Celsius. *see notes if you want to skip this step.

  • Heat up a pan with the butter and sautee onions soft. This can take 10-15 minutes (time added to total cooking time in recipe)

  • Place cooked onions into the tart crust and spread out evenly. Pour savory custard mixture over the onions.

  • Bake tart for 30 minutes at 400-430 Fahrenheit/ 200-220 Fahrenheit. *see Notes

Notes

  1. Use either 1 rolled out shortcrust pastry (traditional version) or a puff pastry if you want it to be flakier or a filo pastry works great too.
  2. You can skip the blind baking of your pastry crust if you are lazy or if you want to save time and effort. Add the 15 minutes baking to the filled tart baking time. In that case, the total time will be 45 minutes (15 mins just the crust + 30 for the filled tart). BUT keep in mind baking the crust blind has its advantages. The pastry will be better baked through and won't deform.
  3. Adjust baking temperature to your oven. Not all ovens are the same. Start with higher heat and reduce and adjust if need be.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

French Onion Tart Recipe

Amount Per Serving

Calories 192Calories from Fat 117

% Daily Value*

Fat 13g20%

Saturated Fat 6g30%

Cholesterol 61mg20%

Sodium 268mg11%

Potassium 136mg4%

Carbohydrates 16g5%

Fiber 2g8%

Sugar 2g2%

Protein 4g8%

Vitamin A 297IU6%

Vitamin C 5mg6%

Calcium 37mg4%

Iron 1mg6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

This post was first published on the 2nd July 2012 and has been enhanced visually and with better instructions and infos ever since.

French Onion Tart Recipe | MasalaHerb.com (2024)

FAQs

How do you deepen the flavor of French onion soup? ›

My personal go-tos include worcestershire sauce, fish sauce, and brandy. Each deepens the flavor of french onion soup. Balsamic vinegar and soy sauce are other great options.

How do you reheat an onion tart? ›

This French Onion Tart should be served warm or at room temperature. To reheat microwave for 20 to 30 seconds per piece. To reheat whole, place in a 375°F oven for about 20 minutes. Brush with garlic oil and sprinkle with parsley before cutting and serving.

Why do you put baking soda in French onion soup? ›

The caramelized onions for this soup cook more quickly due to a pinch of baking soda but still have that deep, slow-cooked flavor. Topping the soup with hot, cheesy toasts prepared while the soup simmers, eliminates the need to bake the soup in specialty French onion soup bowls.

Why does my French onion soup taste burnt? ›

If the heat is too high, the onions will burn. If you don't stir often at beginning and almost constantly toward the end, the onions will burn. If one little bit burns the whole batch needs to be tossed. Otherwise the soup ends up tasting like burnt onion.

Can I freeze onion tart? ›

The tart freezes really well, so you can prepare it the day before you want to serve it, put it in the freezer and bake when you're ready to eat it. You could also make little individual tarts.

How do you keep tart fresh overnight? ›

Avoid storing pastries in the refrigerator, as this can make them soggy. Instead, store them at room temperature in a pantry or cabinet. If I have pastries with fillings, such as custard or cream, I store them in the refrigerator overnight. However, be sure to wrap them tightly to prevent them from drying out.

How do you fix bland onion soup? ›

Fix a bland onion soup by using supermarket broth and mild white onions, tasteless oil for sauteeing, stale plain white bread instead of croutons, and mild white cheese. Start by reducing the broth. Simmering out some water will intensify the flavor of the broth. Once you get it to the right point, add some salt.

How do you make soup taste stronger? ›

Use fresh vegetables, high-quality meats or broth, and fresh herbs to add depth of flavor. Add acidity: A squeeze of lemon or lime juice, a dash of vinegar, or a splash of wine can brighten the flavors of a soup and make it taste more complex.

What spices add depth to soup? ›

Herbs and sources add flavor, aroma, and intensity to the soup broth. You can pick fresh or dried herbs like basil for tomato-based soups or fresh parsley for clear broths. You may also add more spices like turmeric, ground ginger, ground paprika, or nutmeg for a touch of spice and color to your soup broth.

How do you get the most Flavour out of onions? ›

Soak in Vinegar: It only takes about 15 minutes. Soaking raw onions in acid rinses away the harsh flavors and adds pleasant tartness. Soak in Water: Even water washes away those pesky sulfuric flavors. A quick 15-minute soak does the trick.

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