When baking blind I prefer to use ceramic beads (available from good supply shops) as they combine high mass together with super heat conductivity.

Heston Blumenthal uses old coins; which I find totally unhygenic. Yuk.

Anything you buy is unhygienic, too until washed at home. Old coins can be easily cleaned, therefore plenty hygienic, and resourceful. I always encourage the thoughtful reuse of everyday items. Buying unnecessary items is just plain wasteful, adding to your carbon footprint.
-cheers

What would be a good accompaniment to this for a dinner?

First two entrees that come to mind for me would be the Beef Tenderloin w/ Peppercorn Sauce (my favorite) or the Roasted Lemon and Cilantro Chicken. I even love the sides paired with these dishes. Anyone else have some ideas?

No menu is complete without a nice glass of wine to go with it. The sweetness of the caramelized onions and the richness of the butter crust just scream out for an Alsatian Riesling. Bone dry, acidic, with wonderful stone-fruit flavours and mineral components.

So here's an idea. Pop and pour the chilled Riesling and have that with a small green salad and the tart, then follow it with Joe's favorite and a nice Cabernet Sauvignon.

Now just add desert and you have a perfect menu.

Cheers!

Very nice rolling pin!

I have some dry beans I use when blind baking.

I like taking the opportunity to cook during the holidays... especailly when you know you've got a couple of days to tackle things and there always seems to be people around to try your food.

This recipe is destined for my smoker or grill... let's see what happens.

Yum

Brian

May i know the name of this type of dough ? Thank

This dough is classified as a flaky dough. All ingredients should be as cold as possible and the dough should not be overworked. The individual parcels of butter make this crust very flaky.

The crust is amazing. It took 40 minutes for the onions to caramalize but they were so sweet that my guest asked if I had added sugar. The video is a must to watch to pre-bake the tart shell as the text recipe does not include the 2 steps nor the times. Wonderful recipe that I will be making again for sure.

Liz, you're right, you can't rush the caramelization of the onions...however you can do that step earlier in the day or even the day before, deglaze with an Alsatian reisling to cut down some of the sweetness...and finish the bottle with your friends.

I brought this to a family potluck and it was very popular! I didn't have a tart pan, so I had to make do with a pie pan, but it was still perfect. Great recipe!

Ashley, I'm glad you had success with the onion tart and yes in can be done with a pie plate. However, because of the slopes of a pie plate versus the 90 angles of a removable bottom tart shell, it is imperative to well rest the dough before par baking or it will slide down.

Thank you for the recipe.
Could you please use weight instead of volume when measuring. It is very difficult to measure 10 tablespoons and you get a mess.
Thank you

While we do know weighing is easier, especially when it comes to baking, it is more common for most people to measure using cups and spoons. You could measure out 1/2 a cup + 2 tablespoons instead of the 10 tbsp. Cheers!

I made some meat pies and a blueberry pie using this technique (grating the cold butter). This is such a good idea, I do not know how come people hadn't thought about it earlier.
Thank you for the technique.

Hi,
I have guests this weekend but won't have much time to cook the day they arrive, Can I freeze the tart and re-heat? in what stage do you think it would be best?

Can be done, yet I would avoid it, as the tart freezes "slowly " in your home freezer and especially defrosting you may end up with a soggy pastry. However this pie keeps well for up to 3-4 days in the fridge, to reheat place in a 325°F oven for about 15 minutes - hope this helps.

Great that is very helpful!

I was just wondering the size of the tart pan that was used for this recipe?

This recipe calls for a 9" tart pan (as per the last paragraph in Step 1). Cheers!

Ooops! So sorry. It escaped my eyes... Is there a way to obtain a list of ingredients, preparation time and serving portions in the recipe part of the website, that is, where the text is? I seem to be having trouble finding that info. Perhaps it is because I am so used to the recipe format. I absolutely love your site and recipes. They are very well balanced and exquisite! It is only this details that I am having trouble finding easily. Thanks for your input.

Not sure if you are referring to the text recipe? If so, then there is a tab and/or button called "Text Recipe". Here you will find all of the ingredients listed. You will also see at the top of the text recipe that "preparation time", "total time", "servings" etc. listed at the top of the page. Hope this helps. Cheers!

Thank you Dawn for your reply. I have printed many of the recipes in the site using the tab that reads "Text Recipe" but the info that you mention never comes up in the printed copy. It does not come up either when I look at the recipe in my computer. What I can see are the steps with the ingredients that correspond to the step that it is being explained. But preparation time, serving portions, etc. don't show. I don't know if I am missing something or if it is my web browser (Firefox) and the fact that I am using a Mac. Sometimes that happens.

Not sure what to say. When we print the recipes, they show up at the top near the title/description. We will contact you offline to try and help you out. Cheers!