Blue Cheese and Pear Tartlets

OMG! These were so good! It was the first appetizer to go! I did follow a few of the suggestions: used Gorgonzola instead of bleu cheese & drizzled honey on the top after a few minutes of cooling. I also added about 2 tablespoons of light cream cheese to balance the Gorgonzola and to make the tart a little creamy. Also, I forgot to add the light cream at first, so I "poured" a drop onto each tart individually after I filled them. This turned out fine. There was quite a bit of mix left after filling the 15 tartletts, so I created my own tartlets by using regular philo dough (sp?) and cutting it into small squares (about 5 or 6 layers). If you make your own, make sure you brush melted butter on the dough so it will turn golden. (I forgot that step.) Next time, I will dice the pear pieces up smaller & add a piece of walnut to the finished product before drizzling the honey. The description said it was time-consuming, but I found this to be one of the easiest things I've made in a while. The "work" is in dicing the pear & filling the tarts - not time-consuming at all.

I couldn't find premade phylo shells and didn't have time to make some, so I used pie crust instead. I cut store bought crust into approx. 2 inch squares and pressed them into mini tart pans. I baked the pie crust for a little less time than the package called for then I put the filling into the hot pie crust and put it back into the oven for 5 more minutes. They came out bubbly and delicious and were gone within minutes at my party!

these were awesome! served them to my friends at a "purse" party...raves! almost everyone begged for the recipe. i doubled the recipe *used a little less than double the blue cheese* only used one pear and 2 pkgs of tarts. i heated the tarts first for 5 minutes ..then filled and baked. must be a lover of crumbly blue! i might even try adding a bit of apple and some finely chopped walnuts next time!