“We make a goat cheese and apple tart at the bakery,” he says.
“Bet that’s expensive,” I say.
“Too expensive for my family to eat. Unless it’s gone very stale. Of course, practically everything we eat is stale,” says Peeta, pulling the sleeping bag up around him. In less than a minute, he’s snoring.
Huh. I always assumed the shopkeepers live a soft life. And it’s true, Peeta has always had enough to eat. But there’s something kind of depressing about living your life on stale bread, the hard, dry loaves that no one else wanted.
The Hunger Games, page 309
In this scene, Peeta’s just given Katniss more food from their basket from Haymitch and then mentions the tarts they make at the bakery, no doubt from Prim’s Goat Cheese because at one point, Katniss mentions that Prim always puts aside two of her cheeses for him and in exchange he gives her a generous amount of bread.
I’ve never made tarts before and I bought a Williams-Sonoma pan just to make these. I followed this recipe because it was simple, but in the end I found that the crusts were just way too dense and it was like swallowing plaster. I will definitely try this again with a different crust, hopefully one that’s crispier and flakier. I padded the goat cheese into the bottoms and then layered on apples that were tossed with honey.
It was a bit hard getting a nice design with the apple slices since the tarts are so tiny, so I’ll have to experiment again. I didn’t care too much for the overall taste, probably because I don’t usually like tarts in the first place and the goat cheese tasted a little odd with the apples and honey. I’ll keep you guys posted on another attempt later! After all, I can’t justify buying a pan like that and then only use it once!
This was actually the last reference to food in the book, if you don’t count the glass of orange juice Katniss receives after the Games.
UPDATE: Please see my recipe for Mellark’s Bakery Goat Cheese and Apple Tarts.
i was wondering if you were going to make the dandelion salad.i have really wanted to try it,and hope that you could make it soon.thanks! 8)
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Well, I have to plant a new batch first!
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Thanks.I tried the District 11 bread and they were kinda plain.I like them better with jam or butter on them.They were good though 8)
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They’re plain on purpose.
I expect sugar is a luxury many of them can’t afford.
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This is great but is there a recipe? and i want dandilion salad
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No recipe yet as I’m not happy with the way these turned out. The crusts were kinda awful.
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[...] lucky folks get more of my fictional food crammed down your throats, hahaha! This time, I made the goat cheese and apple tarts the Peeta mentions to Katniss while they’re in the cave. The crust I made wasn’t that [...]
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I’d love to see some of the interesting soups in Catching Fire. From the party right after Peeta proposes. They sound so good, pumpkin soup with silver nuts, rasberry soup, clear green springtime soup!
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I’m still working on my Hit List for Catching Fire, but the raspberry soup sounds really cool!
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Oh yeah, there was also a small bird filled with orange sauce! Yum….
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ok,do you remember when president snow came to talk to katniss in the second book,at the beginning of the book?well,peeta made these cookies with pink and yellow flowers on them.I was wondering if you could make them?they sound really good.
p.s. i love they site,huge fan:)
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The goat cheese and apple tarts always sounded interesting to me but definitely sounds like something to experiment with!
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Yeah, the crust I used wasn’t so hot.
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Try this one!
3 cups all purpose flour
Dash of salt
12 tbs or 1 ½ sticks chilled butter
2 eggs
3-4 tbs cold water
Mix the flour and salt in a food processor.
Add the butter in pieces and pulse until the flour begins to thicken
Add eggs and the water, pulse until small clumps of dough begin to form.
Form two balls with the dough, flatten into disks, use the dough immediately or let it rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes if it is too warm.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a thin sheet and cover the tart pan with it, press the dough gently with your fingers onto the pan, start at the center and move outward, remove any excess dough from the edges but leave an inch to wrap around the edges of the pan – this will help prevent the crust from shrinking.
Prick the tart shell with a fork and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or until ready to use.
For recipes that call for the tart shell to be partially baked, pre-heat the oven to 400 F, line the shell with foil and fill with beans or baking beads for about 20 minutes, just until the edges begin to get some color. If the edges get very brown you might want to cover the edges with foil while cooking the tart (once the filling is added).
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I think part of your problem might be assembling your tarts in pre-baked shells. Goat cheese and apples both do well in the oven, so you might get better results if you make it more like a quiche. We occasionally do a bacon, apple, and goat cheese quiche at work, and it’s quite popular.
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I really think it was the recipe. I’ll try the one that came on the back of the Williams-Sonoma packaging!
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oh my word, that sounds delicious. where, might i ask, do you work?
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This sounds like it has so much potential. Maybe spicing the goat cheese with a touch of allspice or nutmeg and a dash of honey to tie the flavors together?
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Do you bake the tart after you put the stuff in?
Probz not.
I’m just stupid & making sure.
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Yes, that’s how a tart is often made. You add the filling and then bake it. Some tarts have a baked crust and a raw filling, like fresh fruit tarts. And some others, like custard tarts, start with the raw crust and raw filling and are baked until the filling sets and the crust is golden. So no, you are not stupid. Simply unsure. “He who doesn’t know, need only ask” they say. Haha.
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I would suggest you use a plain pie crust for your tarts. If you roll it out to a thinner point, it could work well. If you want something a bit flakier, you could also try phyllo dough. It’s a bit more work to layer it with the butter, but the end product is crispy and flaky and super good lol. Also you could season the goat milk first, matter of fact, you could tweak the goat cheese a bit and mix in some cream cheese. It would soften the flavor and make the seasoning easier. Perhaps use a bit of apple butter and vanilla essence to make it more “pertaining” to the tart. To make the apple topping, I’d dice the apples and just have them arranged on top. Sort of like when you dice the apples for the center of an apple danish. I hope that any of this helped a bit. I’ve never made these tarts before, but I’ve made similar ones, and they were quite good. May the tarts be EVER in your favor. HAHA!
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I meant to say you could season the goat CHEESE first xD Must’ve been thinking milk when I typed it.
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I’ve been looking at a lot of apple and goat cheese tart recipes online; and I’ve seen that they all use puff pastry dough. Try using that it will most likely come out the way you expected.
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I don’t remember the description in the book, but what if you used Brunost (gjetost) instead of the white goat cheese? It has a tangy/nutty/not-quite sweet flavor that some people compare to panut butter. To me it smells like evaporated milk (which, I guess it kind-of is) so it always reminds me of making fudge. Either way, I think it might go rather well with the apples especially if you choose something on the tart side like a Pink Lady but not as far as a Granny Smith.
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I’ve always wanted you to make this dish!!! thank you. can’t wait to have the finial recipe:)
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Thanks! I’ll try to make it again soon!
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I love tarts!:D
Hey, you said the goat cheese tasted weird with the apples and honey, so why don’t you try apples with cinnamon instead? You know, like on apple pies
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Thanks for all these great recipes! Everyone I know who’s read ‘The Hunger Games’ has cringed at the idea of goat cheese and apple tarts, then I made them for a book club party (with a different crust yeah, but I’ve been making tarts and pies a while) and no one knew what they were till they bit in. A hit of course lol. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what else you put up. Everyone loved the lamb stew I made from your recipe too, as well as a few others that I tried to recreate on my own. The pumpkin soup with slivered nuts and the pink soup with raspberries (ex.)
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[...] in October, I tried doing Goat Cheese and Apple Tarts from The Hunger Games that I really didn’t like all that much. They were [...]
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wow you really make good stuff. i am going to make these for my mom
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can you give me the recipe so the crust isnt dense
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Hi LittleMockingjay, try this one instead! http://www.fictionalfood.net/2012/01/mellarks-bakery-goat-cheese-apple-tarts/
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thanks alot it looks really good! hey could you let me now when you come up with new recipes because these look so good.
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I made these for my hunger games party. They were scrumptious!
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