Butternut Squash Tartlets

This week, the Leftover Wine Club in my building met to finish off some, well, leftover wine (duh!). I wanted to bring something fun to snack on, so I looked at what was in my kitchen for ideas. I had a butternut squash sitting around - who doesn't - so I figured I'd use it! I found the basic tartlet recipe online, and changed a few things to my liking (particularly the use of phyllo dough instead of making pastry dough, cause who really has time for that??). From what I could tell, it went over well.. I know I enjoyed them.

Butternut Squash Tartlets

1.5 lb butternut squash

8 oz cream cheese

2 eggs

½ cup heavy cream

½ tsp ground nutmeg

1 tbsp chopped fresh sage

Phyllo dough

Melted butter

Grated cheddar cheese, as needed (approx 8 oz)

Roast the butternut squash. Preheat oven to 375˚. But squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Make a few slices in the skin on the backside of each half and lay cut side down on the baking sheet. Bake until very tender, approximately 45 minutes.

Prepare the filling. In a medium mixing bowl, whip the cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add in the eggs, cream, nutmeg, and sage. Blend until well-mixed. When the squash is done roasting, scrape out the inside, adding it to the cream cheese mixture.  Blend until well-mixed; it should be a thick liquid consistency. This filling can easily be refrigerated a day or two before using.

Make and fill the phyllo cups. Layer five or six pieces of phyllo dough, brushing melted butter between each layer. Cut into pieces slightly larger than the cups in the tin you are using (mini-muffin tin, small square silicon mold like this one from Sur La Table, etc). Lightly brush the tin or mold cups with melted butter, and mold the phyllo pieces into each cup. Place a bit of grated cheddar in each cup, then fill them the rest of the way up to the edge of the phyllo with the butternut squash mixture.

Bake in a 375˚ oven for roughly 10 minutes, until the filling is puffy. Serve warm.


This recipe made enough batter for me to fill 50-60 squares.

Here are a few pictures from the process:

 

 Cut phyllo dough
 

 Formed cups in the silicon mold
 

Added a bit of cheddar

The filling will be a consistency similar to pancake batter
 

Filling the cups

Almost done!
 

Perfection!