Mini Spinach Artichoke Tarts make a tasty two-bite appetizer. Made with mascarpone or cream cheese, artichoke hearts, spinach, Mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese, these savory tarts make a delicious appetizer in any season! Make them ahead of time!
❤️ Why you'll love these mini spinach artichoke tarts
- Make them ahead of time! Mini party appetizers, pre-made and tucked away in the freezer can be life savers! And these Mini Spinach Artichoke Tarts make ideal finger food for parties year-round. Oozing with cheesy goodness, they're sure to be snapped up by hungry friends and family at your next get-together.
- Delicious both warm or cold. These mini appetizer tarts are delicious warm, straight from the oven, but they're just as good at room temperature, too. Make them ahead of time, refrigerate or freeze and warm them in the oven just before serving time.
- Fun finger food. They're tiny two-bite snacks filled with healthy spinach, tangy artichokes, and salty cheese in a tender, flaky pastry shell.
- Spinach artichoke dip is a favorite dip year-round! If you love this spinach-artichoke combo, you'll also love these: Puff Pastry Spinach Artichoke Pinwheels, Spinach-Artichoke Puff Pastry Cups, and Gluten-free Spinach Artichoke Galette.
🛒 Ingredients
Never-fail Pastry: (see recipe below) or a gluten-free pastry mix or store-bought frozen gluten-free pastry.
For Spinach-Artichoke Filling:
- butter
- onion
- mascarpone cheese or cream cheese
- salt and pepper
- artichoke hearts
- fresh baby spinach leaves
- Mozzarella cheese
- Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
🔪 Instructions
For Never-Fail Pastry
- Put the flour and salt in a food processor and pulse once or twice to combine.
- Cube the chilled butter, then add it to the flour in the food processor bowl and pulse until it resembles a coarse meal.
- Add the vinegar to the milk. Add all at once to the flour mixture. Pulse until it just forms a ball.
- Remove the dough from the processor and divide it into two balls. Place the balls on waxed paper or plastic wrap, and flatten them gently into two discs. Top with another layer of wrap, fold over, then refrigerate them if you're not using the pastry right away.
- Roll out and cut to fit your tart pan. You can use a mini muffin pan to make two-bite appetizers, or a regular muffin pan for larger tarts. Press the pastry gently into the tins, smoothing out any creases. Prick several times with the tines of a fork.
For the Spinach-Artichoke Filling
- Add coarsely chopped spinach leaves to a skillet over low heat. Stir occasionally as spinach wilts. Turn off the heat and set aside until ready to add to the tart mixture.
- In a 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Cook onion in butter until softened.
- Add mascarpone or cream cheese and stir until melted and combined.
- Add salt and pepper.
- Remove from heat, stir in finely chopped artichoke hearts and wilted spinach.
- Add grated cheese, reserving ¼ cup of the Parmesan, and stir until well blended.
- Fill the tart shells with the spinach artichoke mixture and top with the reserved cheese.
- Bake at 400°F. for 18 - 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Remove from oven, let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then continue cooling on a wire rack, or serve immediately.
- Refrigerate or freeze in an airtight container with parchment paper between layers.
👍🏼 Helpful tips
I use my Never-Fail Pastry recipe to make these mini appetizer tarts, as it makes a dough that is very easy to work with. It rolls out beautifully and rarely tears.
While some cooks prefer to use shortening, or half butter and half shortening, I like to use all butter. Butter makes a rich flaky pastry with lots of flavour. Unsalted butter is recommended as it has a sweeter flavor. If you use salted butter, reduce the amount of salt you add to the dough.
Roll the pastry gently and as little as possible, always pressing from the center of the dough towards the edges. In this way, it will roll out in an even thickness. I like mine to be about ⅛th of an inch thick for tarts.
The secret to flaky pastry? Handle it as little as possible!
Use a cookie cutter, jar lid, or a large glass to cut circles to fit the inside of your tart tins. Ease the dough in gently, crimping the edges if you like.
❓ Spinach Artichoke Tarts with gluten-free pastry
Yes, you can make these tarts with gluten-free pastry!
Will they be as tender? No, not quite. However, I have successfully made these Spinach Artichoke Tarts using gluten-free pastry both as mini tarts and as regularly sized tarts. I used a simple recipe from Bob's Red Mill that uses Gluten-Free All-Purpose Baking flour that I always have on hand.
🥶 Storage and freezing instructions
Store these spinach artichoke tarts in an airtight container in the fridge. Reheat on a baking sheet in the oven at 300°F. for 7 - 10 minutes or until heated through.
Freeze them in an airtight container with parchment paper between layers.
📖 Recipe
Mini Spinach Artichoke Tarts
Ingredients
Never-Fail Pastry * or use Gluten-free Pastry
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter chilled
- ⅓ cup milk
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
Spinach Artichoke Filling
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ⅓ cup onion, finely chopped
- ⅓ cup mascarpone cheese, or cream cheese
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 14 oz. can artichoke hearts*, drained and chopped
- 5 oz fresh baby spinach leaves, coarse stems removed, coarsely chopped
- 1 cup (100 g) Mozzarella cheese, grated
- 1 cup (150 g) Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, finely grated
Instructions
Never-Fail Pastry
- Put flour and salt in food processor and pulse.
- Cube butter, then add to flour in processor bowl and pulse until it resembles coarse meal.
- Add vinegar to milk. Add all at once to flour mixture. Pulse until it just forms a ball.
- Remove and divide into two balls. Place on waxed paper or plastic wrap, flatten gently into a disc, top with another layer of wrap, fold over and refrigerate if not using right away.
- Roll out and cut to fit your tart tins. Press gently into tins, smoothing out any creases. Prick several times with the tines of a fork.
Spinach Artichoke Filling
- Add coarsely chopped spinach leaves to a skillet over low heat. Stir occasionally as spinach wilts. Turn off heat and set aside until ready to add to tart mixture.
- Turn off heat and set aside until ready to add to tart mixture.
- In a 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium hear. Cook onion in butter until softened.
- Add mascarpone or cream cheese and stir until melted and combined.
- Add salt and pepper.
- Remove from heat, stir in finely chopped artichoke hearts and wilted spinach.
- Add grated cheese, reserving ¼ cup of the Parmesan, and stir until well blended.
- Fill tart shells, then top with the reserved Parmesan cheese.
- Bake at 400°F. for 18 - 20 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. Remove from oven, let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then continue cooling on rack, or serve immediately.
- Refrigerate or freeze in an airtight container with parchment paper between layers.
Elsa Wade
I would like to make this as one tart. Would the ingredient amounts be the same?
Thank You,
Elsa
Elaine
Hi Elsa, That sounds like a lovely idea. I haven't tried this myself, but looking over the recipe, it seems it would be enough for a 9-inch pie. I would make sure to thoroughly drain the artichokes and the spinach. I'd love to hear how it turns out!
Katherine
I've made these before (delicious!). I would like to make them for the holidays in advance
Any suggestions on how to reheat?
Flavour & Savour
Hi Katherine, Great idea to make them in advance! I'd reheat them in the oven at 300°F. for about 7 - 10 minutes, or in a toaster oven. Happy holidays!
Dierdre
I made these tarts for appetizers during the holidays and they were snapped up. I froze half of them and reheated them in the oven. Delicious!