Chef John's Asparagus Tart

I made this for a birthday luncheon with maple salmon from this website, and a fresh corn salad. It was great! After a 'test run' I did find the mustard a bit too pronounced, so I added a little more creme fraiche. The puff pastry I had in my supermarket (Pepperidge Farms) was about 10" by 10", so when I rolled up (twisted) a half inch on all sides, I was left with a 9" by 9" area. For this, I needed about 12-13 medium sized stalks of Asparagus, but only used one portion of the sauce. This square was perfect for 4 portions as a side dish.

I can never go wrong with Chef John's recipes! I did change slightly to cater to my family's tastes. I didn't trust myself to make the shell, so I put the puff pastry into my rectangle tart pan. As the grocery only had thin asparagus, I had to us a lot more. I cut into thirds. I used some garlic-herb soft cheese and sour cream as the base. I served as an Easter appetizer. Everyone loved it! Next time I'll make two!

It was really good. I mean, look at the ingredients -- you'd have to mess up worse than I did to make it not delicious. First, apparently, there are different sizes of puff pastry. This is my first time using it, so I didn't realize it and I got a giant one. It didn't really detract from the deliciousness, it just made a ton more than Chef John's. Second, I didn't have a silicone baking mat. I didn't think it would make a big difference, but the bottom burned really bad in the first 10 minutes of "pre baking". The burned part luckily stuck to the pan, so I just ran with it, and the second part of the baking when I transferred it to a different pan it crisped it up nicely. All in all, very delicious.

Added heirloom carrots sliced to similar size for added color. Great Thanksgiving side dish!

Easy and delicious. Looks beautiful too.

Very nice, very easy and made a good presentation for company. Made exactly per recipe, and 4 of us ate it all. IF we had any leftovers, I am wondering how it would have fared in the refrigerator?

very pretty, big hit. really fattening.

Very fancy and very easy. I has the potential to be a 5 star. Next time I will make more sauce and add a little more seasoning.

4-stars for presentation (although I bought the fatter spears - planning for 5/person, I could've used another spear or 2 of asparagus to fill the pastry). Attractive presentation, easy to prepare. I liked the asparagus; wish the bottom portion of the pastry was flakier. I didn't love the pairing of the mustard sauce with the vegetable.

I really like asparagus tarts on puff pastry, but I did not care for the asparagus/cream/Dijon combo. These are all ingredients I like, just not this combo. I liked recipes that were more asparagus with cheese styled.

I added some horseradish to the mustard mixture. THIS WAS DELICIOUS!!! I used a homemade puff pastry, made from the recipe found on this site. The side border collapsed, but, ah well. Sadly, it broke apart when I took it out of the pan, but that did not make it taste worse - just the presentation. Maybe with more practice it'll look better.