A sneaky cheese board masquerading as a dessert. # 409: Blackberry Goat Cheese Tart

This bake is having a slight identity crisis. The filling is smooth and creamy like a cheesecake but the goat cheese along with the rosemary and thyme in the crust are giving savory quiche. And then you have the flamboyant pile of blackberries on top drizzled with honey. It’s decadent and too cool for labels.

I had to hum the Great British Bake Off intro while lining up all the blackberries on top. Someday I’m going to make that cake with all the raspberries! Hold me to it.

Is the world coming full circle with people installing landlines and print newspapers are becoming trendy again? I subscribed to a baking newspaper on a whim and it was way more of a delight than I was expecting. I mean c’mon, a baking themed crossword? The dream!

I also love the idea of getting seasonal recipe inspiration once a month. This one was all about berries and now I really want to make something with roasted strawberries.

I seem to have a thing for adding rosemary into my crusts (lookin’ at you lemon rosemary tart & lemon bars). But adding thyme as well is a new one! Go super herby or go home, that’s the phrase right?

Using cold butter in any sort of pie or tart crust feels like baking law, but this one called for melted butter. 🤯 I wonder if there’s any benefit to melted butter besides the ease of mixing it in? Working with cold butter helps get that yummy flaky texture in pie crust, as the water trapped in the solid butter evaporates in the oven leaving little pockets in the dough. So hypothetically, using melted butter will result in a more compact texture.

Squish.

Since the butter’s already melted, there was no need to chill it before baking. Logically it makes sense but it still felt backwards.

Huzzah!

The filling had no added sugar – just eggs, goat cheese, salt, pepper and milk. You could definitely repurpose this for a fully savory quiche. Add in some bacon or sausage to go with the herby crust? Mmm.

Pepper freckles.

Little foot swinging in to say hello! Baking with a baby in a carrier is a whole new kind of workout.

The debate: start from the edges and spiral in? Start at the center and spiral out? Make straight lines across the whole thing? Lean into chaos and plop them down haphazardly?

I combined options 3 and 4 and had juuust enough berries to cover the whole thing. If I had an extra carton I would have sliced some in half to fill in the gaps at the edges.

That honey glaze *sparkle*.

Trimming the giant rosemary in the backyard, one bake at a time.

Happy munching!

Recipe from: Erin McDowell in Baking Nation