Mushroom Tart

We found it! The perfect shortcrust recipe. Until now, I have always made shortcrust by hand. Rubbing the cold butter into the flour is rather strenuous for my hands and I was never fully content with the results I got. Either the dough was a bit too firm or too crumbly which made it more difficult to roll it out. The recipe below advises to make the dough with a food processor which I have never done before. We were delighted with the result! A super-smooth dough which is rather easy to roll out. The filling of this tart is easy to make and not too heavy. If you like mushrooms, this tart is going to be a winner! Goes well with a salad. Perfect for a light summer dinner.

Recipe
(from Elle à Table N°82)

Pâte Brisée (Shortcrust)
250g flour
1 egg
150g butter, cold
2 pinches of salt
1 teaspoon sugar
6 tablespoons cold milk

Put the flour, sugar, salt and the butter, cut into small cubes, into a food processor and mix on high speed. Then, add the egg and the milk and mix again until all is well incorporated. If the dough is too liquid, add a bit of flour. Then, transfer your dough onto a floured surface, knead shortly with your hands and form into a ball. Flatten a little and wrap in cling film. Put in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.

Mushroom Filling and assembling the Tart:
500g mushrooms (champignons, we took about 350g champignons and 150g oyster mushrooms)
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoons olive oil
20g butter
a pinch of cayenne pepper
1 heaped tablespoon of crème fraiche
1 handful of spinach leaves
125g ricotta
ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a tart tin (about 25cm diameter) with parchment paper or grease well.

If your mushrooms are dirty, clean them by brushing them, you should not wash them with water, they will get soaky. Cut them in quarters. Heat up the olive oil and the butter in a large frying pan, add the mushrooms and fry them for about 5 to 10 minutes or so. In the meantime, you can cut your dough in two halves. Roll out the first one and place into your tart tin. Perforate the dough with a fork. Transfer the mushrooms into a bowl. Add the flour, crème fraiche, ricotta, spices and the spinach leaves and mix well. Pour into your tart tin. Then, roll out the second half of the dough into a disc and place onto your tart. Cut it crosswise in the middle with a knife so that the steam may evaporate. You can also pull open the wedges of dough so that you get a bigger hole in the middle (see picture below). I think, the tart lookes really nice like that. However, you can also only make one disc of shortcrust and leave out the second one to cover the tart.

Bake for about 40-50 minutes, until the dough is golden brown.