Black Garlic & Cannabis Caramelized Onion Tart with 15 mg
This is what happens when a French pastry chef and a stoner from Osaka get lost in the same walk-in for three days. A shatter-thin all-butter crust blind-baked until it rings like a bell, filled with a custard so slow-cooked it turns the color of midnight, packed with onions that spent four patient hours becoming sweet liquid gold and ten black garlic cloves that taste like molasses had a threesome with tamari and balsamic. One slice and you’ll forget every sad gas-station pie you ever met.
Serves 8 very happy humans
Active time: 2½ hours | Total time: 6 hours + 10-day infusion
Dosage: 15 mg THC per slice (120 mg total in the filling)
Start the infusion 10 days ahead.
Take 2.18 g cannabis flower testing 22 % THC. Spread evenly on a parchment-lined tray and decarboxylate at 240 °F for exactly 40 minutes. Leave in the turned-off oven another 30 minutes to cool slowly.
Make the infused cultured butter (makes 1½ cups / exactly 120 mg usable THC).
454 g highest-fat European-style unsalted butter (83–84 %)
10 g European cultured butter powder (for depth)
2.18 g freshly decarbed flower
¾ tsp sunflower lecithin granules
Place everything except the weed in a small saucepan. Heat gently to 185 °F, stirring until the butter smells like toasted nuts and cinema popcorn had a baby. Add the decarbed flower and lecithin. Hold at 185 °F in a water bath for exactly 2 hours, agitating every 15 minutes with an immersion blender on low. Hang in a triple-layer cheesecloth overnight in the fridge. Next day, scrape the clean green butter from the bottom, remelt gently, strain again through coffee filter, and chill solid. You now have 400 g pristine 120 mg infused butter.
Crust (rough-puff method, same day)
300 g AP flour (King Arthur or similar 11.7 % protein)
240 g infused cultured butter, cold, cut into ½-inch cubes
6 g fine sea salt
90 g ice-cold water
15 g vodka (helps tenderness, cooks off)
Toss flour and salt in a bowl. Add cold butter cubes and press flat with your fingers until each piece is a thin sheet (leave big chunks). Drizzle water + vodka, fold with a spatula until it barely holds. Turn out, fraisage twice with the heel of your hand, pat into a 1-inch thick rectangle, wrap, rest 45 minutes in fridge. Do four book-folds with 30-minute rests between each. Roll final time to 12 × 18 inches, ⅛ inch thick. Line a 9-inch fluted tart ring, dock heavily, freeze 30 minutes. Blind-bake 400 °F with weights 25 minutes, remove weights, bake another 12–14 minutes until deep golden and hollow-sounding when tapped. Cool completely.
Filling
1.2 kg sweet onions (Maui or Vidalia), sliced 2 mm on mandoline
10 cloves black garlic, mashed to paste
120 g infused cultured butter (the entire 120 mg batch)
180 g heavy cream
120 g whole milk
4 large egg yolks
2 whole eggs
12 g kosher salt
2 g freshly cracked black pepper
1 tsp sherry vinegar
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
Melt the entire 120 mg infused butter in a wide rondeau over the lowest possible heat. Add onions and salt. Cook, stirring every 8–10 minutes, for 3½–4 hours until reduced by 80 %, deep mahogany, and sweet enough to make you cry. Add black garlic paste in the last 30 minutes. Deglaze with sherry vinegar. Cool completely.
Whisk cream, milk, yolks, whole eggs, pepper, and nutmeg until smooth. Fold in cooled onion mixture. Pour into blind-baked shell (it will come right to the rim). Bake at 300 °F on a preheated stone or steel for 45–55 minutes until the center has a gentle jiggle like a cheesecake and reads 175 °F on a probe. Turn oven off, crack door, let sit 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature at least 3 hours.
To serve
Warm the tart 15 minutes at 275 °F if made ahead. Finish with flaky Maldon salt, a few cracks of pepper, and a tiny spoon of 10-year-aged sherry vinegar gel dots if you’re extra. Cut into 8 perfect slices with a hot, dry knife cleaned between cuts.
15 mg THC per slice.
Eat slowly with a chilled bottle of amontillado and zero plans for the rest of the night.
Your taste buds will speak French, your body will speak couch.