Sobrasada, cheeses and grape tartlets with Pedro Ximénez sauce

Thinking about the Christmas menu? Well, these cheese and grape tartlets with Pedro Ximénez sauce make an excellent appetizer: they're easy and the combination of flavors from all the cheeses is sensational.

You can adapt this recipe to an individual format, as I present it here, or use a whole sheet of shortcrust pastry and serve it as if it were a pizza, although for special events like Christmas lunch or New Year's Eve dinner I prefer to serve it the way I bring it to you.

You'll see I used the Le Creuset muffin tin to bake them. This way I get the shortcrust pastry to take the shape I want so it's easy to pour the sauce over later.

Le Creuset non-stick muffin pan

Ingredients

• 1 sheet of shortcrust pastry
• 100 g Cheddar cheese
• 100 g Maasdam cheese
• 100 g goat cheese log
• 100 g sobrasada
• 12 grapes
• 1 glass of Pedro Ximénez wine

Preparation

1. Cut the grapes in half and remove the seeds. Let the grapes macerate for 30 minutes in the Pedro Ximénez wine.
2. Grease the muffin tin with non-stick spray. Cut the shortcrust pastry using a cookie cutter and line the base of the mold cavities. Prick the pastry with a fork and bake it at 200ºC with top and bottom heat for 7 minutes.
3. Remove the tin from the oven and place a layer of sobrasada on the shortcrust pastry, then the Cheddar, the Maasdam and the goat cheese log.
4. Drain the grapes, reserving the wine, and distribute them over the cheeses
5. Bake 10 more minutes at 200ºC
6. While the tartlets are in the oven, put the Pedro Ximénez wine where the grapes macerated into a saucepan and reduce it until it reaches a syrupy consistency.
7. Remove the tartlets from the oven and drizzle with the sauce.

Le Creuset non-stick muffin pan