- Hey, guys, today I am gonna show you how to make a really impressive appetizer for the holiday season
that is so easy to make. It is like ridiculous. (laughs) It's called a tart au soleil,
which is a French appetizer, and the literal translation is sun tart. And it's easy to see why it has that name, because when you look at it, it looks like a big rising sun,
or sunflower sometimes too. So I'm gonna show you how
to make this tart two ways, one a savory version which is great for any
holiday cocktail parties, and then a sweet one which
would be great for a dessert or even Christmas morning brunch. Let me show you how to put it together. So first up we're gonna
tackle the savory variety, and all we're gonna do is fill it with some store-bought pesto, which is quite delicious and easy. So the first thing you wanna
do is go to the supermarket and find some store-brought
puff pastry sheets. Now, this works really well when you can get the puff
pastry that isn't scored but is actually just a flat rectangle. The Trader Joe's brand comes
as a rectangular sheet, so if you live in the
U.S. you'll find it there. Then you wanna transfer
that to a baking sheet that's lined with parchment paper. Then you're gonna roll it out. You don't have to do much. Puff pastry can be kinda hard to roll out, so you don't have to go far with it. Just far enough so that you
can take a dinner size plate and cut out a circle. So I'm using a 10-inch plate. This works really well on a baking sheet that doesn't have any rims so that it can just slide
right off once it's done and you don't have to move it. Then you can go ahead and
spread three to four tablespoons of the pesto in the center of the circle. And then you do wanna
leave about 1/2 an inch to an inch border all the
way around the circle. This will prevent the
pesto from spilling out when we go to cut our little sun rays. Then you can take the
second sheet of puff pastry, cut your circle, put it on
top of your rolling pin, and that will be easy, 'cause then you can line up
the circles and plop it on top. Then to create our sun, we
are going to take a glass. I find a little juice
glass tends to work best. Then you can remove the glass, and you'll see it'll make
a little indentation. And then I think the easiest way to get kind of roughly equal sun rays is to quarter the puff
pastry at this point. So you just wanna cut the
sides and then the top, and you'll have almost like a clock. Then you can go ahead
and, using your knife, cut each quadrant in half
and then in quarters. And then you'll have equal little rays. So you wanna do that all the wanna around. And at this point if your puff pastry has gotten pretty soft on you and it's hard to kinda cut it, just pop it in the freezer to firm up. It'll make it easier to work with. Then once all your
little sun rays are cut, here's the fun part. You're gonna take the end of it and give it a full two turn twist, being careful not to snap
it off from the center, and giving it a good
twist so that you'll see you'll have some dimension to it. And then you wanna take that tail and make sure that it's just laying flat. And you can do that all
the way around the tart, and you'll see how
beautiful it starts to look. And then once you're done, I do like to put it in
the freezer at this point just to firm up, because we're going to
put an egg wash on top. And I find if the puff pastry's
too soft when you do that, it'll have a tendency to kind of deflate and get a little mushy on you. Then after the egg wash, I do like to add a little
decorative flourish in the center. Totally optional, but I
do think it looks pretty, some little sesame seeds. Then it starts to kinda
look like a sunflower too. And we're gonna bake at 400
degrees for about 20 minutes. You can check on it, and you'll see, it'll start to turn really
nice and golden brown. At that point, let it go for
like another two minutes, because that will just
help that puff pastry get really crisped up. If you take it out too soon and it's still a little doughy, it'll start to deflate and
won't hold its shape as well. So 20 minutes, check on it, and then if it looks like it
needs another two minutes, go another two. And the way that people eat it is you just grab a little
sun ray and pull it off. And puff pastry can be a little bit messy, so I do make sure that I serve these with some cocktail napkins. And this time of year I
really pull out all the stops and I go with the linen
cocktail napkins. (laughs) There's nothing more elegant
than offering your guest a linen cocktail napkin. And I found these online through a company called Bumblebee Linens, so I'll leave you a
link in the description on where you can get them. I was really impressed with
the quality, I have to say. Okay, so now for the dessert variety. This would be really fun to make for a dessert buffet or an open house that you might be having
around the holidays. And all we're gonna do is fill it with a little bit of
chocolate hazelnut spread, about three tablespoons or so. And you can go ahead and just make sure that it's all well-distributed. And we're just gonna do
the same exact thing. We're gonna put our glass
on top, cut our rays, and then wash it with a
little bit of egg wash. Pop it in the oven for
the same amount of time. And if you wanted to gild the lily, you could just add a little
bit of powdered sugar on top. (laughs) It is a bit sweet,
but it does look so pretty, especially for Christmas. So now, Christmas day is crazy
and insane, as we all know, so this could be completely
prepped ahead of time. You could even put the egg
wash on it and everything and just let it sit like this, covered with maybe a little bit of parchment paper or
plastic wrap in your freezer. And then all you have to do
is get up on Christmas morning and put it in the oven, and
people will be so impressed when you get it to the table. All right, you guys, be sure to subscribe for more holiday recipes, and I will see you back here
next week with another one. Until then, bye.
Learn how to make a classic French appetizer known as a Tarte Au Soleil. A great appetizer idea for holiday entertaining made with store-bought puff pastry.
Yield: serves 8
Ingredients
Instructions