Mushroom Tartlets with Soft Boiled Eggs

Using a pastry blender, mixer, or food processor, mix together the flour, sugar, salt, and butter. To keep the small chunks of butter, don’t overmix.

Add the eggs and milk and mix until a dough forms (overmixing can cause the dough to become spongy and prevent it from becoming crumbly).

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Using a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a 1/8″ thickness. Using a cookie cutter or simply a knife, cut the dough into circles about 5½″ wide. Line tartlet pans (4″ wide) with the dough and refrigerate them for at least 40 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

Using a fork, poke the pastry bottoms several times.

Place squares of parchment paper into each mould and add dried peas or beans to prevent the dough from rising in the oven. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove tartlets from the oven. Remove the parchment paper and beans and place the moulds back into the oven for a few minutes until the bottoms are perfectly golden.

Tip: the shortcrust pastry recipe yields more dough than required for the 8 tartlets. If properly wrapped, the remaining dough can be frozen and used later.

In a large frying pan over medium to high heat, sauté the onions with olive oil for 15–20 minutes or until they are lightly caramelized.

Remove from heat, add the vinegar and pour into a bowl.

In the same frying pan over high heat with butter and olive oil, fry the mushrooms a few at a time to get a beautiful colour and avoid overfilling the pan.

Add the mushrooms to the onions. Mix well and add salt and pepper to season.

Fill each tartlet with the mushroom mix and place back in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 8 minutes.

In a saucepan, boil water and carefully drop the eggs in using a metal spoon.

Cook for 5½ minutes in the boiling water. Remove the eggs from the water and place them in a bowl of cold water. Let them cool for 5 minutes.

Carefully break the shells and peel the eggs.

Tip: you can prepare the eggs a few hours in advance and keep them peeled in a bowl of water in the fridge.

In a saucepan of boiling water, reheat the eggs for two minutes.

Place the eggs on the warm tartlets, adding salt and pepper to taste and garnishing with fresh herbs.