Description
These Halloween Jack Skellington Ricotta Olive Tarts are a spooky and delicious gluten-free appetizer perfect for festive gatherings. Featuring a crispy gluten-free crust filled with a creamy ricotta mixture and decorated with black olives and sun-dried tomatoes to resemble Jack Skellington’s iconic face, these tarts are both visually impressive and flavorful.
Ingredients
Scale
Gluten-Free Tart Crust
- ½ cup sweet rice flour
- ¼ cup millet flour
- ⅓ cup gluten-free oat flour
- 3 tablespoons Bob’s Red Mill tapioca flour or corn starch
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces
- 5-7 tablespoons ice water
Filling
- 1 can black olives
- 3-4 tablespoons julienned sun-dried tomatoes, from a jar packed in oil
- 2-3 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
- 3 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 1½ cups ricotta cheese
- ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
- 3 egg whites
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Prepare the crust: Whisk together sweet rice flour, millet flour, oat flour, tapioca starch, and kosher salt in a large bowl. Add cold unsalted butter and mix with your hands, breaking up the butter until the largest pieces are about pea-sized. Gradually add ice water, one tablespoon at a time, incorporating after each addition until the dough holds when pinched.
- Chill dough: Divide the dough into 6 to 8 pieces depending on tartlet size. Roll each into a ball, flatten into discs, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven: Set the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Roll out dough: Roll each chilled disc between two sheets of parchment or wax paper dusted with millet flour into a circle about 1 inch larger than the tart pan. Peel one side of parchment off, flip dough into tart pan with parchment side up, then peel off second paper and press crust into pan. Repeat for remaining dough.
- Prepare tart decorations: Thinly slice 6 black olives lengthwise into thin strips for the mouth, and cut 12 to 14 olive ovals for the nose. Chop 3-4 tablespoons of olives for filling.
- Assemble base toppings: Distribute chopped olives, julienned sun-dried tomatoes, fresh thyme leaves (about ¼ teaspoon per tart), and parmesan cheese evenly over the tart crusts.
- Bake crust with toppings: Bake tart shells for 12 minutes until crusts are lightly cooked.
- Make ricotta filling: While crusts bake, whisk together ricotta cheese, Greek yogurt, egg whites, minced garlic, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt until smooth.
- Fill tarts: Remove tart shells from oven and evenly fill each tart to the top with ricotta mixture.
- Create Jack Skellington faces: Place two whole black olives for eyes, two small olive ovals for the nose, and arrange paper-thin olive strips in a criss-cross pattern to form the mouth using chopsticks or fingers for precision.
- Bake filled tarts: Bake for 25 minutes or until ricotta filling is set. Start checking at 15 minutes depending on tart size to avoid overcooking. Serve warm.
- Reheat instructions: To reheat, bake tarts at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 7 minutes.
Notes
- Use millet flour to dust while rolling dough to prevent sticking and add texture.
- For easier olive placement, use chopsticks or a small tool to arrange thin olive strips delicately.
- If gluten-free oat flour is unavailable, grind rolled oats finely in a food processor to make your own.
- Adjust ice water quantity as needed to form cohesive dough without it becoming sticky.
- Tart pans that hold 4 tarts will require baking in batches if making 6-8 tarts.
- To make the filling more or less tangy, adjust amount of Greek yogurt accordingly.
- The recipe yields 6 to 8 mini tarts approximately 3 to 4 inches in diameter each.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 tart
- Calories: 180 kcal
- Sugar: 2 g
- Sodium: 280 mg
- Fat: 12 g
- Saturated Fat: 6 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 4 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 14 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 7 g
- Cholesterol: 40 mg
