So a while ago, I went to Japan, and experienced the amazingness that was the Pablo Cheese Tart. A buttery shortbread dough with a creamy, oozy, molten cheesecake-like filling, and a caramelized topping, it was like eating a basque cheesecake and an egg tart, but in one! I made a rendition on them using White Rabbit candies and with a carrot cake flavor-inspiration, but this time around, I wanted to go with another dessert ingredient that plays off of cheese, being apples. Apples and cheese are a match made in heaven, and I wanted to expand on that through these cheese tarts! The typical cheese tart recipe does use a little parmesan cheese, but I went with gjetost, which is a Norwegian brown cheese that has a similar texture and meltiness to cheddar, but a flavor more similar to caramel, but less sweet. So, you know, Asian parent-approved. Unlike the White Rabbit-carrot tarts, these tarts were baked using mini cupcake tins, just because I wanted to get more out of a batch! That and the Pablo Cheese Tarts were somewhere in the middle of a normal cupcake and a mini in terms of size, which is something I only realized after baking these with the 24-cavity mini cupcake tins. That being said, the minis did bake rather quickly, and they were a fun bite-sized treat that you could feel somewhat less-guilty about eating 6-8 of them compared to 6-8 of the regular cupcake tin-sized tartlets!

This recipe consists of three components: a shortbread dough, the caramelized apple filling, and the Gjetost cheese filling. In terms of technical difficulty, I would give this recipe a 6/10, just because it comes together really quickly, and there are maybe only three critical points, one per component, that you need to be wary of. For the tart shells, we roll out the dough and cut them into 4-inch rounds. Instead of baking them inside of the cupcake tins, we are inverting the cupcake tins, and baking them on the outside. This way, the shells are thinner and can hold more filling. The important thing to note here is that you need to make sure that the rounds of dough are perfectly aligned to the centers of the tins, otherwise as they bake, the tart shells may come out uneven or lopsided. Other than that, I used cornstarch in the dough, which gave the baked tart shells a similar texture to an alfajore cookie, and I brushed the insides of the shells with some egg yolk and re-baked them until the interiors were golden-brown. Since these shells contain two relatively liquid-y fillings, the re-baking of the shells with the egg yolk wash will help the dough not go soggy from being filled. A lot of bakeries employ that technique just so that their tart shells have a nice golden-brown color to them, the egg yolk wash actually adds more sturdiness to the cooked pastry, and the shells themselves can last longer!

With the two fillings, there is the caramelized apple filling and the Gjetost cheese filling. For the caramelized apple, the main thing is nailing the temperature for the caramel itself. Using a thermometer gives the most consistent results, but you ultimately need that caramel to reach an amber brown color before you add in the apples. After that, it’s all about cooking that down, low and slow, until the apples cook into a dark brown paste, which you will spread into each tart. For the other filling, beign the Gjetost cheese mixture, this is probably the most technical part of the recipe. With a normal cheese tart, you have a lot of wiggle room in terms of getting the tops to be bruleed/caramelized by the broiler, while keeping the cheese filling oozy and molten. Since these tartlets are small and half-filled with caramelized apple, you have a lot less leeway. I do have some tips though to help with still getting some ooze out of your filling! I found that using heavy cream in the filling versus milk gives it more fat. By introducing more fat to the filling, this means a longer cooking time, so your filling has more time to caramelize in the broiler before it could potentially scramble. Additionally, if you want to skip the broiler altogether, using a blowtorch on a lower flame setting can achieve the same caramelized top, and while keeping the filling relatively uncooked.

Makes 24 mini tartlets:
For the shortbread dough:
1 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup + 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 egg yolk

In a bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and salt until they reach a silky consistency. Then add to that the egg yolk, and vanilla, and stir until those are incorporated as well. Finally, fold the flour and cornstarch into the butter to form your dough. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. Then on a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out 24 4-inch rounds of dough, rerolling the dough as necessary. Place the dough onto the backs of an upside down mini cupcake tin. Bake at 375 degrees F for 12 minutes. Allow the baked shells to cool slightly before inverting the tin and removing them. Brush the insides of the shells with egg yolk and bake these again for another 5 minutes. Allow the shells to fully cool before storing in an airtight container.

For the apple filling:
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
a pinch of salt
2 apples, peeled, cored, and finely diced
a pinch of cinnamon

In a pan, heat up the butter, brown sugar, and salt. Once the sugar and butter and melted together and browned, add in the apples first, and then the cinnamon. Stir everything gently on low heat until liquid is cooked out of the apples and they are dark brown and translucent. Allow the apples to cool down before distributing into the bottoms of your tart shells.

For the Gjestost cheese filling:
2oz granulated sugar
2oz heavy cream
.25oz grated gjetost cheese
1 egg
6oz cream cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a pot, melt down the sugar, cream, and gjetost. Bring the mixture to a simmer, and pour over your eggs and cream cheese. Whip until combined, and mix into that the vanilla extract. Transfer to a piping bag, and pipe the filling into each tartlet, filling them up all the way.

Place each tart onto an unlined sheet tray and broil for 2 minutes in the oven, checking every minute or so to make sure that the tartlets don’t burn. If the tarts do not caramelize as much on top, finish the tops with a blowtorch, just so that the filling does not scramble.