Bake 52: Caramelized Onion Tart with Blue Cheese and Walnuts

I was excited for this one.  It sounded Fancy-Schmancy to me.  And I like to pretend I am Fancy-Schmancy sometimes.  I figured my kids wouldn't with me on this one.  I think their taste buds are less refined than mine.  *Mine are very refined.  

I halved the recipe (*weird, right, I never do that) and used the other half of the dough to make the kids a regular cheese and pepperoni pizza.  Tyler was a sport and shared this one with me.  Although, when I wasn't looking, he was trying to trade Calvin pizzas.  Calvin wasn't having it. 

I was afraid the blue cheese was going to be too much for us.  It's a strong flavor and I tasted it while I was getting ready to make it.  I was sure it would be too much for Tyler so I did half with feta cheese and half with blue cheese.  I liked them both.  Surprisingly, Tyler liked the blue cheese better.  I didn't have any green onions but I can say with confidence that they would have been delicious on this.  I think next time, (Tyler wouldn't approve of 'next time') I would make a kind-of pesto out of the cheese, walnuts and green onions.  Then spread that on the pizza and top it with the caramelized onions.  Only because I am not a huge fan a big chunks.  While I liked the flavors, I would have liked all of them more evenly distributed in each bite.  And my walnuts fell off sometimes.  

I used my favorite pizza crust recipe (with all bread flour and no wheat this time) and it's was delicious.  I am going to try the one in the book again soon to see if it was just a fluke the time I didn't love it.

It always takes me WAY longer than the recipe says to caramelize onions.  One of my first attempts, I listened to the time in the recipe rather than the look and taste.  I made a quiche for my sister-in-laws baby shower that was supposed to have caramelized onions and instead had cooked onions (A LOT of cooked onions) with bacon.  blech.  People there were so nice, they still told me it was good.  They were lying. 

I have learned my lesson.  I figure that when I want to turn the heat off and just eat the onions with a fork, they are ready.

Before baking

After baking

If you are feeling Fancy-Schmancy yourself and you'd like the recipe, you can get it at Michelle's blog.  She was our host this week.  Thanks for picking something different and fun Michelle!

For an update, I didn't win the photo contest!  *Can you believe that a photo of me sitting by the pool didn't beat all of those photos of vacuuming and sewing and such?  *It's almost like someone doesn't know what domestic means.

*Sarcasm