This is a French family onion tart recipe. It's from northern France, the historical Picardy region.
You can prepare this savory tart within minutes or choose to make it from scratch.
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TL;DR
An onion tart is a savory, open, pie-like pastry with an onion custard filling.
It's a traditional main course dish, served for lunch or dinner, in Northern France.
My mother's family (and this recipe) is from the Cathedral City Beauvais in Picardy; however, different variations may exist in Alsace, Lorraine, Normandy, and even Ils-de-France (Paris area).
How to make it?
Making this dish is rather easy if you have the pastry ready.
You can use a shortcrust pastry, a puff pastry, or even a filo pastry (if that is what you have at home). Traditionally a simple unsweetened puff pastry is used.
Step 1
Peel and slice onions. Combine the custard filling ingredients.
Step 2
Place rolled-out pastry dough into a tart pan and cut off excess edges.
Make small holes with a fork into the pastry bottom and bake the pastry first alone (called blind baking).
Sauté sliced onions in a pan until soft. Keep it cool for 5 minutes.
Step 3
Spread cooked onions in the semi baked tart crust.
Pour savory custard filling over the onion.
Bake onion tart until cooked through and serve hot.
📖 Recipe
French Onion Tart Recipe
Ingredients
- 4-5 Onion medium, max. 2 inch broad
- 1 Shortcrust OR puff pastry sheet *See Notes
- 1 Tablespoon Butter to saute onion
For the savory custard filling:
- 2 Egg
- 1 Cup Table Cream
- 1 Tablespoon Thyme dried
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
Instructions
- Peel and slice onion. Keep aside.
- Prepare the savory custard filling. Combine egg, liquid cream, thyme, salt and black pepper in a bowl to a smooth consistency. Keep aside.
- Place rolled out pastry dough into a tart pan and cut off extra on the edges. Poke into pastry with a fork to create small holes. That's so that the pastry doesn't deform when baking blind.
- Preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit/ 200 Celsius.
- Place a cut out round baking sheet, which is fitting into the tart base, and keep beans or pie weights on the round cut out baking sheet. Bake your crust alone (called baking blind) for 15 minutes at 400 Fahrenheit/ 200 Celsius. *see notes if you want to skip this step.
- Heat up a pan with the butter and sautee onions soft. This can take 10-15 minutes (time added to total cooking time in recipe)
- Place cooked onions into the tart crust and spread out evenly. Pour savory custard mixture over the onions.
- Bake tart for 30 minutes at 400-430 Fahrenheit/ 200-220 Fahrenheit. *see Notes
Notes
- Use either 1 rolled out shortcrust pastry (traditional version) or a puff pastry if you want it to be flakier or a filo pastry works great too.
- You can skip the blind baking of your pastry crust if you are lazy or if you want to save time and effort. Add the 15 minutes baking to the filled tart baking time. In that case, the total time will be 45 minutes (15 mins just the crust + 30 for the filled tart). BUT keep in mind baking the crust blind has its advantages. The pastry will be better baked through and won't deform.
- Adjust baking temperature to your oven. Not all ovens are the same. Start with higher heat and reduce and adjust if need be.
Nutrition
Serving ideas
We usually prepare our onion tart for lunch or dinner and serve it with a simple green salad and a vinaigrette.
You can serve it with any other lighter salad or a clear soup.
The tart is great with a wine such as a white wine or a rosé. A Riesling or Chardonnay tastes fantastic with this onion tart.
Storing
Keep baked leftovers in your fridge and warm them up in the oven. You can keep it in the fridge for up to 2-3 days.
You can also freeze your tart. To achieve that, simply prepare the complete tart as per instructions, but don't bake it at the end.
Just place the tart into your freezer and wait for it to get stone hard. Take it out from the tart pan, wrap it in foil, and keep it in the freezer.
Take out your frozen onion tart whenever you want to bake it and place it back into the same tart shape.
Don't thaw just place it frozen into the oven, but add extra baking time to the cooking process. About 15 minutes more.
You can keep a frozen tart for about 2-3 months in the freezer.
FAQs
Yes, you can. But add the baking time to your total time. That said it's better to partially bake the crust in the oven all alone (blind baking) so that the crust is properly baked through and not soft. But when I'm lazy or out of time (because I don't mind a softer crust), I just bake it all in one go without blind baking. #confession The choice is up to you!
A quiche is just a savory custard tart. Tarts can be sweet or savory but a quiche is always savory and always with a custard base. So, actually this onion tart could be called a quiche too.
More Recipes from the region
- Tarte flambee
- Classic Quiche Lorraine
- Spinach Tomato Quiche by platedcravings.com
This post was first published on the 2nd of July 2012 and has been enhanced visually and with better instructions and information ever since.
I think that “puff pastry” in America is different. I cooked mine for 20 mins after “blind baking” and if I left it in any longer it would have been very burnt. Also I think that the onions should have been slightly caramelized, which I will do next time to add that great onion flavor. The egg and cream ratio are perfect!
Hi Audrey, thanks for sharing. I think it also depends on your oven and oven setting. I will add more details to the baking time to consider your points.
Hi, 4-5 medium onions was way to much for my store bought pie crust! And I couldn't fit all of the custard, it was spilling over 🙁 It's in the oven now, fingers crossed... I couldn't help but notice there is no cheese in this recipe, is that traditional? I always thought it called for Gruyere! Thank you regardless of how mine turns out, it's always fun to try something new!
Hi Jamie, the recipe is fully French. One medium-sized onion is not more than 2 inches (ca. 5 cm) wide in diameter and a large onion is about 3 inches (ca. 8 cm) broad. I think your onions might have been too big, and the pie had too many onion slices in it and that's why it spilled over. No, there is no cheese in this because this is a recipe from the Picardi region in the north, and we don't add cheese to that. Gruyère cheese is a Swiss cheese. I hope your Onion Tart was tasty nonetheless Jamie!
Hi there, this looks delicious and I can’t wait to make it. I see there are 192 calories per serving - how many servings are there/what is a good serving size? Thank you!
Hi Tory,
The Tart is cut into 8 slices and each slice is calculated as a serving in this recipe. If you are looking for a weight loos meal, then try a slice of onion tart with some green lettuce salad and a vinaigrette dressing. That's how it's eaten in France.
Thank you!
Hello, this recipe seems amazing .I, myself am french and i absolutely love onion tart. You just brang back so many great memoriez from when i was younger and my mom used to make it all the time. But thankfully i found thid version which seems healthier than the original one. I just wanted to ask you about the liquid cream: what liquid cream am i supposed to use?
You can use table cream or heavy cream, whichever you get there. half and half can also be an option if you can't get table cream.
Hi Helene! Visiting from Lizzy's blog. I had to come over after seeing your name. You share the same name with my mom. Your tart looks so delicious. Sorry about your oven. 26 yrs is a long time.
I have never yet had a problem with my oven *knock on wood* That sounds like something that would make me panic.
This looks perfect! I have yet to make a tart. This has got to happen soon!
I haven't really tasted Onion tarte in my entire life, onions are one my favorite food items though, we all know how nutritious these foods are, I might serve this dish tomorrow for my upcoming indoor bash, i am very excited to taste how all those ingredients compliments each other.
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thank you Drina, thats so sweet from your part! =)
So perfect 🙂 Looks absolutely stunning! Love the back drop too.