French onion tart

I've a thing for recipes that start with "french" ~ but guess you know that already! ^^

Recently, we had a slice of french quiche with a soft filling of caramelized onions and just the barest of egg-taste.. and I thought about replicating that same uncomplicated taste yet flavorful tart at home.

So imagine reading the french onion tart shared by smitten kitchen.. I practically ran to buy yellow onions! ^^

French onion tart (recipe from the smitten kitchen)
Crust
2 cups/ 250g all purpose flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup / 113g chilled butter, cubed (I used 125g ^^)
3-4 tbsp cold water

Filling
4 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup low-sodium beef/chicken/mushroom stock/broth
some black pepper, to season
1/2 cup / 60g grated gruyere, comte, swiss cheese (none? just use cheddar ^^)
1 large egg
1/2 cup / 125ml heavy cream

1. Prepare crust. Mix flour, salt and butter in a processor/mixer till you get crumbs. Add water to form dough. Roll out dough to fit a greased 9-inch tart time. Freeze for at least 15 minutes. Bake blind if you like, I didn't.

2. Make caramelized onion filling. Heat up butter and olive oil, and add onions to the pan. Toss and saute them gently for a bit. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover the pan and leave onions to cook for 15 minutes. Then remove lid, add salt and saute for another 10-15 minutes, till the onions are fully caramelized and taken a deep golden color (?? mine still looked pale to me ^^||). Next, add stock/broth, turn heat up and let mixture simmer till broth completely dries up (around 5-10 minutes). Adjust the salt.. (I didn't, but next time I would ~ caramelized onions are very sweet, a little bit more salt would make it all the more tasty!). Remove from heat and leave to cool.

3. Beat eggs and cream together. Season with salt and pepper if you wish.

4. Spread caramelized onions on pastry shell and pour egg mixture over. Sprinkle grated cheese over the filling. 

5. Bake on 180C for about 40-50 minutes, or until the top is golden. 

I've always gone overboard when it comes to quiche filling ~ more ham, more bacon, more meat, more onions, more cheese.. more everything! ^^

But this is a quiche that's only filled with sweet, sweet caramelized onions! And it's gorgeous!

Never mind if this quiche is not quite the one I had in mind (to replicate). If my pickiest guinea pig, papa pig, says it's good and he likes it more than any of my "extreme" version, I'm happy. ^^

p.s. there maybe caramelized onions left over.. don't waste, add cooked rice and make caramelized onion fried rice ~ it's very, very nice! ^^