This Caramelized Onion Tart is the perfect appetizer or party finger food. It’s a puff pastry tart with flaky edges is topped with delicious caramelized onions, and topped with creamy goat cheese and honey.
Fair warning: I’ve been known to polish off a few too many of these dreamy French onion tarts when I make them…I have no self-control when it comes to these fluffy creamy sweet bites of goodness!
Caramelized Onions with Goat Cheese on Puff Pastry
Caramelized onion tart is such an elegant yet simple dish that we love making it for holiday parties, brunch, when we have friends over…or when we feel like munching on something fancy (without putting in a lot of work)!
These gorgeous and tasty French onion tarts are made by placing caramelized onions on puff pastry squares, and then topped with tangy, earthy goat cheese and a few drizzle of honey to bring about an additional touch of sweetness.
If you have been around my blog for a while, you probably know my mad love for using puff pastry as a base for savory pastries and tarts. They are so versatile and easy to use, it’s hard to mess it up!
Here are some of my favorites: Sausage and Cheese Puff Pastry Pocket, Spinach Pinwheels, Puff Pastry Chicken Pot Pie. All made easy using store-bought puff pastry crust that you just need to roll out/cut and bake!
Caramelized onion tart is yet another savory tart that will be added to our list of puff pastry favorites.
The combination of puff pastries, caramelized onions and goat cheese is pure magic. Don’t count on eating just one of these!
I highly recommend serving caramelized onion tarts while they are freshly baked and warm. They are find in room temperature, but are over-the-top-amazing warm!
A few more reasons why I love these Caramelized onion goat cheese tarts:
- Minimal ingredients required – just 6 simple ingredients!
- Easy to make – ready under 40 minutes! If you caramelized the onions ahead of time or use store-bought caramelized onions, these puff pastry tarts can be assembled and baked in 20 minutes.
- Can be made ahead – great for parties and the holidays.
- Customize the toppings – make sense caramelized onion puff pastry bites your own by adding other ingredients such as other mushrooms, other cheeses, herbs etc. See more ideas in the ‘Variations’ section below.
Make these Caramelized Onion Goat Cheese Tarts for your next party! They are great for Christmas and New Year parties, game days, and more. I promise you, everyone is going to love them!
Ingredients
Here are the 6 simple ingredients you will need, all of which can be store-bought (or homemade!):
- puff pastry – most grocery stores have frozen ready-made puff pastry. It will be difficult to make bready and flaky puff pastry from scratch and it takes a lot of time. So for the sake of a quick and ready caramelized onion tart, store-bought puff pastries work perfectly!
- onions – yellow onions, sweet onions or white onions work great.
- goat cheese – this is an earthy cheese with a strong flavor thatg pairs really well with the caramelized onions and honey. Buy good quality goat cheese for best flavor and you really only need a tiny bit of it. Alternatively, you can use other cheeses such as feta, brie, gouda, or another cheese of your choice.
- honey – this will provide the caramelized onion goat cheese tart a hint of sweetness which balance out the savory. It’s also a great pairing with goat cheese.
- egg – this will be beaten and serve as an egg wash for the puss pastry.
- salt – use to open up the flavors when caramelizing the onions.
How to Make Caramelized Onion Puff Pastry Tarts
Step 1: Caramelize Onion
The first step to making the caramelized onion puff pastry recipe is making caramelized onions.
Caramelizing onions is simple but it takes time. Plan on about ten minutes to sufficiently caramelize onions for this caramelized onion goat cheese tart recipe. This is arguably the most labor intensive part of the whole recipe.
First, dice up onions into small cubes, and slow cooked them on a large skillet with a bit of olive oil under medium low heat, stirring occasionally so they are not burnt.
Caramelizing onions will bring out the sweetness of the onions even further, so for this caramelized onion puff pastry dish, I do recommend either making or store buying caramelized onions. So don’t just saute onions if you can avoid it!
Towards the end, season with salt.
In order to make the process quick and easy, some grocery stores also carry already made caramelized onions, which you can buy to save time and effort, especially if you want to make them in big batches for parties.
You can make this ahead of time and store in a airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days prior to making this puff pastry tart.
Step 2: Assemble the puff pastry tart
First, thaw puff pastry in the fridge or room temperature until you can open up the pastry sheets. Each box should include two sheets.
The ones I buy at the grocery store are already folded into three parts and I would open them up into three strips and cut them into nine squares.
Each puff pastry square will serve as an individual caramelized onion tart.
Next, assemble the French onion goat cheese puff pastry tart by placing a teaspoon full of caramelized onions in the center of each puff pastry square.
Beat one egg and brush the sides of each square of pastry sheet with egg wash.
Place each puff pastry tart on a baking pan.
Bake the puff pastries with caramelized onions for 15 minutes until puff pastries are golden brown and expanded.
Remove from oven and top with crumbled goat cheese.
Lastly, drizzle French onion puff pastries with honey.
That flaky buttery crust, plus that savory sweet caramelized onions and creamy tangy goat cheese combination is truly exquisite!
These puff pastry caramelized onion tart taste best when serve warm right out of the oven. So dig in and enjoy asap! 🙂
Make Ahead and Storage Instructions
You can prepare the caramelized (or onions) ahead of time and stored in airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4-5 days ahead of time. Assemble and bake the caramelized onion puff pastry tarts, and then serve them warm immediately.
To store fully cooked tarts, cover in an airtight container after it has cooled down and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
To reheat already baked puff pastries, preheat toaster oven or regular oven to 350°F and bake puff pastry for 12-15 minutes, or until heated through. Cover with aluminum foil if needed.
Variations and Other Topping Ideas
If goat cheese isn’t your thing or you want to mix it up a bit, here are some of my favorite toppings to create different flavors for my caramelized onion tart:
- Other cheeses: feta, blue cheese are good cheeses to add after baking. You can also top caramelized onions with shredded mozzarella, Gouda, brie, Swiss and then bake it to melt these cheeses.
- Herbs & spices: sprinkle with fresh or dried herbs such as oregano, thyme, tarragon, dill or black pepper.
- Proteins: using cooked proteins (like leftover rotisserie chicken or cured meats) is a great way to add flavor and to turn these into a light lunch or dinner.
- Other: mushrooms, vegetables such as arugula
Tips and Tricks
Here are a few quick tips to achieve the best caramelized onion puff pastry ever:
- Thaw frozen puff pastries completely: Let frozen puff pastries sit at room temperature for a couple of hour or overnight in the refrigerator for them to thaw completely before unfolding or rolling them. If not it will be hard to cut or roll them without having them break apart.
- Use store-bought caramelized onions as a short cut: If you need to make these caramelized onion tarts quickly, many stores carry pre-made caramelized onions that taste great on puff pastries and are big timesavers.
- Cook onions low and slow. Be patient when caramelizing onions. Turn heat on low and slowly let them become golden brown (but not burnt!).
- Use parchment paper: When baking the puff pastries, use parchment paper on top of your baking sheet for easy clean-up.
Frequently Asked Questions
To prevent puff pastry from becoming soggy, make sure you don’t overfill the pastry with the wet ingredients (caramelized onions), and bake the cook it in the oven using the right temperature and duration to avoid under baking.
There are two ways to do this:
1. Caramelized onions ahead of time up to 5 days prior and store in refrigerator in an airtight container. Assemble and bake when ready to serve and eat.
2. Bake caramelized onion tart ahead of time up to 3 days, and then reheat when ready to serve then top with goat cheese and drizzle with honey.
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More Appetizers
- Cranberry Whipped Feta Dip
- Roasted Garlic Bread Dip
- Italian Sliders
- Ham and Cheese Crescent Roll Ups
- Marshmallow Fruit Dip
- Crab Rangoon Dip
Caramelized Onions Goat Cheese Tart
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 large onions diced
- salt
- 2 sheets puff pastry defrosted/room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp goat cheese
- 2 tbsp honey
- cooking oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400℉.
- In a large skillet, drizzle cooking oil. Once warm, add the diced onions. Cook slowly under medium low/ low heat until the onions have caramelized and are softened. This will take ~8-10 minutes. Season with a pinch or two of salt. Avoid burning onions.
- Cut the pastry each pastry sheet into nine equal squares.
- Place ~1 tsp of caramelized onions into the center of each square.
- In a small bowl, whisk egg to make an egg wash. Brush the sides of the puff pastry squares with egg wash.
- Place on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven.
- Crumble goat cheese and place on top of the caramelized onions. Drizzle with honey. Repeat until all tarts have cheese and honey.
- Serve and enjoy!
