The Best Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tarts

Flaky and buttery pastry filled with a smooth and creamy cheese filling. These Hokkaido baked cheese tarts are the perfect balance between sweet and salty.

Background

I'm just going to start this blog post off with some cheese appreciation. I'm sure many of you feel the same way as me, I love cheese. Whether it be on a cheese platter with crackers, melted on top of my pizza, or in the form of a dessert I don't know how it can possibly go wrong.

Now that we've got that out of the way let's move onto the recipe! I absolutely love cheese tarts. At first I thought they were just mini cheesecakes with an out of scale cheese to crust ratio. That was before I had an amazing cheese tart. Flashback to my trip to Japan in January 2017... the best Hokkaido baked cheese tarts...

What is it?

Originating in Hokkaido Japan these tarts were originally created to showcase the cheesy taste of Hokkaido dairy. The tart shell is buttery and the cheese filling is firm on the outside and gooey in the centre. Enjoyed warm, cold or frozen these tarts are for everyone!

Tips

Crust

To ensure your pastry turns out flakey, buttery and absolutely delicious keep these tips in mind!

• Everything should be cold: The butter, milk and eggs in these tarts should all be chilled beforehand, and kept as cold as possible whilst making the pastry. This ensures that the butter doesn't melt into the dough. The little pockets of butter is what creates the flakiness when baked.
• Chilling the dough before baking: This is an important step as it prevents the shells from shrinking too much. If the shells shrink too much there won't be enough volume for the cheese filling, throwing the balance between tart shell and filling off.

Filling

To ensure that the cheese tarts have a smooth, cheesy and creamy texture it is important to follow these tips.

• Melt the cheeses well: The cheeses are what causes lumps in the filling. Making sure that all the cheeses have melted into each other ensures a smooth filling.
• Sieving: If you find that the cheese filling is still lumpy you can pass it through a fine meshed sieve

• Thickening: It is important to keep cooking the cheese mixture over the double boiler. This creates a creamier texture. Keep mixing until slightly thickened.
• Chilling: Make sure to chill the filling before piping it into the shells. Chilling the cheese filling makes it a lot easier to pipe into the tart shells, allowing you to fill the tarts to their full capacity.

Adjusting the bake time to your preferred filling consistency

Does the runny centre of a cheese tart make it unsafe to eat?

I find that the best cheese tarts have edges that are slightly firmer, resembling a cheesecake. The centre is then half-baked with a slightly runny consistency. Although the centre of the cheesecake is half-baked it is perfectly safe to eat as it has been cooked during the custard making process and then heated in the oven.

I prefer a firmer cheese tart, how long should I bake it?

If you prefer the centre of your cheese tart to be firmer bake the tart for an additional 3 minutes, or until the tart doesn't jiggle anymore. Make sure you keep a close eye on your tarts as they are being baked at a high temperature. If you find that the tarts are starting to brown too quickly turn the oven off and leave the cheese tarts in there until the filling reaches your desired texture.

How to enjoy

The unique part about Hokkaido cheese tarts is the ways you can enjoy them. Either warm, chilled or frozen.

Warm

How to reheat my cheese tart?

If you enjoy your cheese tarts warm they are best straight out of the oven, as this doesn't compromise their texture. If you want to reheat your tarts, pop them in a toaster oven for 3-4 minutes. Just be aware that this will cook the cheese filling a little more.

Chilled

The easiest way to enjoy your cheese tarts and personally my favourite way to eat them! Chilling the cheese tarts intensifies the cheese flavour whilst adding an extra creamy texture to the filling. At this temperature they resemble a super creamy cheesecake with a slightly cheesier flavour and crumblier crust.

All you need to do is remove it from the fridge and enjoy!

Frozen

An interesting way to enjoy these that you don't usually see with other desserts. Cheese tarts can be eaten frozen because of the half-baked cheese texture. They don't freeze up rock solid and the texture it almost like ice-cream. Delicious!

Let's Get Baking!

Let's get to baking some cheese tarts. These tarts are very much reliant on the ingredients as it was created to showcase the high-quality Hokkaido dairy. I find that a good quality parmesan cheese with Philadelphia cream cheese creates the best tasting Hokkaido cheese tart. Play around with the flavours and find your best cheese tart.

If you liked this recipe make leave me a rating and comment down below! I can't wait to see your creations, don't forget to tag me on instagram @catherine.justdesserts and hashtag #cattycakes so I can find and share all your amazing creations. I hope you all have an amazing day today and I'll see you next time! Happy baking!

📖 Recipe

Hokkaido Cheese Tarts

Print Recipe

★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

Flaky and buttery pastry filled with a smooth and creamy cheese filling. These Hokkaido baked cheese tarts are the perfect balance between sweet and salty.

• Author: Catherine Zhang
• Prep Time: 40 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 50 minutes
• Yield: 9 Tarts 1x
• Category: Tart
• Method: Intermediate
• Cuisine: Japanese

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Tart Shell

• 120 g Plain flour (1 cup)
• 25 g White sugar (2 tbsp)
• 70 g Unsalted butter (¼ cup 2 tsp)
• 1 Egg yolk

Cheese Filling

• 150 g Cream cheese (5.3 oz)
• 50 g Smooth ricotta or mascarpone (3.5 oz)
• 40 g Parmesan cheese (0.9 oz)
• 30 g Butter (2 tbsp)
• 100 g Milk (⅓ cup 1 tbsp)
• 60 g Icing sugar (½ cup 2 tbsp)
• 7 g Cornstarch/Cornflour (1 tbsp)
• 1 Egg
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• Pinch Salt

Instructions

Tart Shell

1. Grease and dust your moulds (I used egg tart tins, but you can use your cupcake tin!)
2. Place flour, sugar, salt and butter in the bowl and rub between your fingertips until the dough resembles sands
3. Add the yolk and knead until a smooth dough
4. If too wet add a little more flour, if too dry add a splash of milk
5. Divide the dough into 9 portions and line your tart tins 
6. Dock the bases of the tart shells with a fork and place the lined tart shells in the freezer for at least 30 minutes
7. Preheat the oven to 180C
8. Bake the tart shells for 20-30 minutes, until lightly golden brown
9. Remove from the oven and press down any air bubbles with a spoon

Cheese Filling

1. Combine the cream cheese, ricotta/mascarpone, parmesan, milk and butter in a large heatproof bowl
2. Melt the cheeses over a double boiler, mix until smooth
3. Add the eggs, vanilla, cornstarch and sugar, and continue stirring the mixture for 10 minutes or until thickened
4. Remove from heat and cover with cling wrap. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour until chilled.
5. Preheat the oven to 230C/ 455F
6. Remove from fridge and fill a piping bag with the cheese mixture
7. Pipe the cheese mixture into the blind baked tart shells
8. Bake for 6-7 minutes, or until they have a burnished finish (you can also use a blowtorch)
9. Enjoy warm or chilled!

Keywords: cheese, cream cheese, cheese tart, hokkaido, tart

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