"Tarteletter"- A traditional Danish Dish

Last night the housemates rented a culinary school kitchen , and made "tarteletters" - traditional Danish puffed pastries, filled with whatever you want in them. We made several different kinds, all with fresh ingredients, and they tasted good. The idea was we filled these hollow-shaped cups of puff pastry with toppings of choice - my group used smoked salmon, créme fraîche, a tiny bit of some Danish smoked cream cheese, dill, grilled radishes and fried snap pees.


Here's some facts about the tarts that I copied from the internet: The puff pastry was invented by a French pastry Chef - Claudius Gele - around 1645. He discovered that by folding pastry dough in many layers - obtained a special crunchy baked puff pastry - a recipes still used today by professionals baking patty shells. The first filled patty shells to be eaten in Denmark were in the late 19th century - and for many decades considered as an upper-class gourmet dish. The first cookbook that described the recipes - was from 1842 by Danish cookbook author Madame Mangor - and in 1880 by recognized cookbook author Louise Nim. In 1900 the patty shells with various fillings slowly became an everyday common meal in the Danish household - and is still a very popular dish up to our time. The dish has become more provincial during this century - and the Copenhageners eat patty shells with quite a sense of humour. There are more than 110 recipes and different ways of making the patty shell fillings and over 40 million patty shells with appropriate fillings are consumed every year in Denmark. In 1901 - the recipes with chicken mixed with asparagus is mentioned for the first time in Miss. Jensen’s cookbook. During the last 20 years the patty shell with filling has had a successful renaissance. 

Our smoked salmon and créme fraíche filling. 

Radishes and snap pees, tosses with some olive oil and flour to make it extra crispy.

Adding the snap pees, radishes and fresh dill garnishing atop the smoked salmon filling and toasted pastry puffs.

Our tarteletters were ready to serve! To the left is our finished product, and to the right is another group's, with beets, spinach, almonds, and goat cheese. They were both delicious and incredibly fresh tasting, but ours was better.

Sean and Claire, congrats on making the blog.

Here are the full recipes:

Beetroot and goat cheese (8 pieces):

300 g beetroots, 1 tablespoon oil, 2 pears, 100 g spinach, 175 g goat cheese, 50 g salted almonds 

Peel the beetroots and slice them into smaller pieces and cook them. Slice the pears and wash and dry the spinach. Put the beetroots in the forms with spinach, pears and goat cheese. Top with some olive oil and chopped almonds. 

Chicken & mushrooms:

2 onions, 2 apples, 30 g butter, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 350 g chicken, 3 tablespoons flour, 1.5 dl broth, 1.5 dl cream, 250 g mushrooms, salt, pepper, parsley.

Cut the onions and apples into smaller pieces and fry it carefully in butter until it’s light brown. Pour the vinegar in the pan and let it “cook” together. Cut the chicken into small pieces and dip them into the flour. Fry the chicken on all sides in butter. Salt and pepper the chicken. Pour broth and cream in the pan and let it cook on low heat until the chicken is done. If the sauce is to thin, thicken it with butter and flour. Fry the mushrooms. Put the sauce with the chicken, the apples, the onions and the mushrooms in the forms and top with chopped parsley. 

Ham and cabbage:

1 point cabbage, 3 carrots, 25 g butter, 4 dl broth, 2 dl cream, 200 g smoked ham, 1-2 teaspoons mustard, parsley, salt and pepper.

Chop the cabbage and slice the carrots and cook it in some water with salt in 5 minutes. Pour away the water. Melt the butter. Put the flour in the pan. Pour the hot broth in the pan little by little while you whip it. Pour the cream in. Let it all cook for about five minutes and make sure to whip it every now and then, so it dosen’t burn. Add slices of ham, cabbage, carrots and some parsley and cook together. Taste it and add salt, pepper and mustard. Add the filling to the forms. Serve them with chopped parsley on the top. 

Salmon and radish:

200-300 g salmon, 2 dl crème fraiche, 1 dl ”rygeost” (optional), 20 radishes, 2 packages of sugar snaps, salt and pepper, dill.

Cut the salmon into smaller pieces. Mix it with creme fraiche, rygeost and chopped radishes. Taste it and add salt and pepper. Add the mix into the forms. Fry the sugar snaps carefully and use it as topping together with the dill. 

How to prepare the tarteletter: Put the tarteletter in the oven for a few minutes. Put the filling in just before you serve them. The tarteletter are supposed to be warm, but not so hot that you burn yourself on the tongue when you eat them.