Description
Appetizer season just got a little more exciting with these caramelized onion and goat cheese puffs. You’re going to love this one!
Ingredients
Scale
- 4 ounces goat cheese (one small package)
- 1 sheet of puff pastry (frozen section grocery store)
For the caramelized onions:
- 2 medium onions, sliced thin
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh or dry thyme, divided
- 2 teaspoons sugar, optional
Optional:
- Honey (to drizzle on top)
NOTE: Most of prep time is waiting for the onions to cook so very low maintenance.
THINGS YOU’LL NEED: mini muffin tin, non-stick cooking spray
Would you like to save this?
You'll also be the first to hear about new recipes in my weekly-ish newsletter! :)
Instructions
- Slice the onions. Peel onions first, then cut in half. Slice the onion into thin slivers – maybe about ¼” in thickness or thinner.
- Add onions to a large pan with butter, olive oil, salt and pepper. Start heat on high until butter melts then toss onions to coat. Reduce to medium heat. We’re caramelizing the onions and that will take about 25-30 minutes. If the heat is too high you will burn the onions. Medium heat works well, and stir the onions as needed throughout the cooking process. At around the 25-minute mark, add the sugar (if using) and the thyme and stir to mix them in. When the onions are a deep golden brown they are done. Then let onions cool down a few minutes before assembling. Do other prep while the onions are cooking.
- You can use dry or fresh thyme for this. If using fresh, gently pull the leaves from a few sprigs. Start at the top of the sprig and gently pull down. Then dice the thyme down fine.
- Spray a mini muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
- Use one sheet of the puff pastry you buy in the frozen section of the grocery store. You should put the frozen sheet in your refrigerator overnight to defrost. Place on a cutting board and roll slightly just to push the fold cuts together a bit.
- Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, make four cuts down the dough in one direction. Rotate the dough (or the cutting board), and make three cuts in the other direction to make 20 squares. My video shows this well. I trimmed some excess off the right side (to even out the size of the squares) and used it to fill a small gap in another spot that needed it. This is dough and it’s not perfect.
- Gently press the dough squares into the mini muffin tin.
- Use a fork to transfer the caramelized onions from a bowl into each mini muffin cup. The onions should be cooled down before doing this – near to room temperature works well. Pace yourself and eyeball it so you make sure you have enough for all the puffs.
- Goat cheese is a little messy so I placed it on a piece of parchment paper and had a cup with warm water standing by to dip my knife in as needed.
- Cut a small chunk of goat cheese and place it on top of the onions. Again, eyeball this so you have enough for all 20 puffs.
- Puff pastry puffs best when it is cold. After I assembled the puffs, I placed the tin in the refrigerator for 10 minutes and THEN transferred to a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes… ovens are different – check them at 10 minutes. Cook until they are golden brown and puffy. Let cool a few minutes before handling.
- To serve. transfer puffs to a serving plate or tray. I found they came out very easily using my fingers, but you can also use a small, thin silicone spatula if needed. Garnish with additional thyme and thyme sprigs and drizzle with honey if you have some on hand. Use the recipe multiplier in the recipe card to double the recipe if you want more.
