Mary Berry's Goat Cheese & Shallot Tarts

To honor the bright and lively spirit of Mary Berry, I decided to make her Goat Cheese & Shallot Tarts. But the real reasons I decided to make these are that (1) I wanted to make something savory and (2) this was the least complicated recipe of Mary Berry I found. The tarts were scrumptious but they didn't look as good as Mary Berry's! What a surprise!

Two notes about the recipe:

(1) I did not have the yorkshire pudding tins that Mary Berry uses in this video as she gracefully teaches commoners like me how to make these beautiful tarts. So I borrowed individual pie tins from my friend, which were a little bigger than the pans Mary Berry uses, but they worked just fine.

(2) There are slight differences between the recipe below, which I got from BBC Food's website, and the Mary Berry Youtube tutorial linked above.

Recipe (Courtesy of BBC Food)

Ingredients

For the pastry

• 6oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting

• 3½oz cold butter, cubed

• 1 free-range egg, beaten

• 1oz walnuts, roughly chopped

• salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the filling

• 1 tbsp oil

• 1lb 2oz banana shallots, thinly sliced

• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

• 1 tbsp light muscovado sugar

• 10½oz soft goats' cheese

• 2 free-range eggs, beaten

• 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 356F/392F Fan/Gas 6. Put a large baking tray in the oven to heat up.

2. To make the pastry, put the flour, butter and a little salt into a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Alternatively, place in a mixing bowl and rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips. Add the beaten egg and a tablespoon water and mix until a ball of dough is formed.

3. Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the dough thinly (about ⅛in thick). Sprinkle the chopped walnuts over the pastry. Cover with cling film and roll over the cling film to press the nuts into the pastry. Cut out 8 large circles using a pastry cutter or saucer as a guide and line the Yorkshire pudding tins. Place in the fridge to chill while you make the filling.

4. Heat the oil in a lidded frying pan, add the shallots and cook over a high heat for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Lower the heat, cover and cook for 10 minutes until soft. Add the vinegar and sugar and cook for 15 minutes, stirring every now and then, until the shallots are dark brown and caramelised. Set aside to cool.

5. Put the goats' cheese, beaten eggs and half the parsley in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper and mix until smooth.

6. Prick the bases of the chilled tart cases all over with a fork, then spoon in the shallot mixture. Pour the goats' cheese mixture over the shallots.

7. Slide the tins onto the hot baking sheet and cook for 20 minutes, or until the pastry is crisp and the filling is just set and golden-brown. Sprinkle with the remaining chopped parsley.