Cheese Tart
This vegetarian builds shortcrust pastry, brie cheese and mascarpone cheese into a proper meal you can have ready in about 70 minutes. Scroll down for the ingredient checklist, a serving scaler and unit converter, and the method broken into 8 steps.
You'll mainly reach for oven and saucepan. At medium difficulty across 8 steps, it's manageable with a little attention. As written, it's meat-free.
What you'll need
Shopping list (3)
Pantry staples (you likely have these)
🔁 Unit converter
How to make it
- Heat the oven to 190 C (375 F) and lightly butter a 23 cm loose-bottomed tart tin.
- Roll the shortcrust pastry out to about 3 mm thick, line the tin pressing it into the edges, trim the overhang, then prick the base with a fork and chill for 15 minutes.
- Line the pastry with parchment and baking beans and blind-bake for 15 minutes, then remove the beans and bake a further 5 minutes until the base is dry and pale gold.
- Trim the rind from the brie and melt the brie with the butter in a bowl set over barely simmering water, stirring until smooth, then let it cool for a few minutes.
- Beat the mascarpone with the sugar, eggs, vanilla, lemon zest and a pinch of salt until smooth, then whisk in the melted brie mixture until evenly combined.
- Pour the filling into the warm pastry case and smooth the top, lowering the oven to 170 C (340 F).
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the filling is set around the edge but still has a slight wobble in the centre and reads at least 71 C (160 F) internally.
- Cool the tart completely in the tin, then chill for at least 2 hours before slicing so the cheese filling firms up.
You'll use: Oven · Saucepan · Whisk
Ingredient substitutions
- Mascarpone
- cream cheese softened with a little cream
- Butter
- olive oil (¾ the amount) · coconut oil · margarine
- Eggs
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce (baking) · 1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water per egg
- Lemon
- lime · 1 tbsp white wine vinegar per lemon
Tips & common questions
How long does Cheese Tart take to make?
About 70 minutes from start to finish — an estimate based on the 8 steps and 9 ingredients. Times vary with your kitchen and how much prep you do ahead.
What can I use instead of mascarpone?
Try cream cheese softened with a little cream. See the substitutions section above for more swaps.
Can I scale this recipe up or down?
Yes — use the servings control above the ingredients and every quantity rescales automatically (fractions included). Cooking times stay roughly the same; very large batches may need a little longer.
Is Cheese Tart vegetarian?
Its ingredients contain no meat or fish, so it's suitable for vegetarians. Check any cheeses for animal rennet if that matters to you.
Related recipes
Cheese Tart is an original recipe developed in-house by Consomee. Photo: Chocolate cheese tart with blueberries.jpg by Shisma, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. We add the serving scaler, ingredient tools, timing and structure on top — how we source recipes.