Crab Tartlets are a quick and easy recipe! Perfect to serve as an appetizer, they will get the party started. With a creamy cheesy filling and simple bread base we bring together basic ingredients with barely any effort. This crab tartlets recipe is then oven baked till the tarts and warm and golden, begging to be plated and devoured!
Recipes like the Stuffed Scallops, Air Fryer Breaded Mushrooms, Smoked Trout Dip and the Prawn And Chorizo Skewers are all fantastic recipes to entertain with.
The Mini Croissant Sandwiches, Cocktail Sausage Rolls, Mini Meatballs and the Spinach Cob Loaf Dip offer a variety of meat or vegetarian party starters that are hugely popular.
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🤍 Recipe Highlights
I have summarised everything that you will come to know and love (LOVE ❤) about the crab tarts recipe in the points below:
- Simple ingredients: you will be able to get everything you need to make these crab tartlets from your local grocery store. They are each year round available ingredients that will be easy to get your hands on.
- Fast and easy: it will take you about 10 minutes to prepare the mini crab tarts and another 10 to cook them. All up they will only take about 20-25 minutes of your time.
- Quick cook time: once the tarts have been filled with the creamy cheese mixture we pop them in the oven and they will be done in 10 to 12 minutes. This means you can get them out and free yourself and the oven up for other cooking that you have on your agenda.
- Easy entertaining: be it a dinner party, bbq or special occasion, you need to be able to pull something together quickly so that you can have something to serve the guests as soon as they arrive. This crab tarts recipe is quick, easy and the thing that will help you offer food with minimal effort needed to create them!
🥗 Ingredients
The photo below is to show you everything you need to make the recipe. Please refer to the printable recipe card for specific ingredient measurements as well as detailed instructions.
As you can see the recipe calls for:
- Salt and pepper: we use a small amount of salt and black pepper for seasoning the tart filling.
- Worcestershire sauce: the worcestershire sauce gives the cream cheese mixture a boost of flavor.
- Mustard: the mustard is also in the mix for flavor. Djion is recommened.
- Cream cheese: the cream cheese gives us the creamy tart filling. It absorbs the rest of the ingredients and adds a lovely cream texture to the tarts.
- Parmesan cheese: freshly grated using a microplane zester is best.
- Corn kernels: the corn kernels gives the tart filling an extra texture. The juicy kernels burst in your mouth and do so much to compliment the soft creamy filling.
- Crab meat: you will be able to find tinned crab meat in the supermarket aisle with the tinned tuna and prawns. Then we simply drain the excess liquid and add the crab meat to the food processor.
- Green onions: these give us the onion flavor but in not so harsh a way as a regular onion does. Their taste is aromatic and fragrant.
- White bread: using white bread for the pastry shells is a time saver as well and giving the tarts a crispy shell which contrasts nicely to the soft cream cheese filling.
Tasty Tip: I like to provide you with a number of substitutions and variations giving you an array of options when making my recipes. If in doubt of any of the above ingredients, or wanting alternatives, read this section (further below) before jumping into the instructions on how to make the recipe which are coming next 😉👌.
🍳 Instructions
Here are the step by step instructions to make the recipe. We start by roughly chopping the green onions and then adding them to the food processor.
- Roughly chop the green onions (Photo 1)
- Add them to the food processor (Photo 2)
- Blitz the onions (Photo 3)
- Add the cream cheese (Photo 4)
👩🍳 How to Make Crab Tartlets
To make the crab tartlets, start by blitzing the green onions then adding the remaining ingredients for the filling to the food processor bowl.
Add the cream cheese, crab meat, parmesan cheese, mustard and Worcestershire sauce.
- Add the crab meat (Photo 5)
- Then add the parmesan cheese (Photo 6)
- Add the djion mustard (Photo 7)
- Then add the Worcestershire sauce (Photo 8)
Next add the salt and pepper then blitz together the mixture as you see in the photos below.
- Add the salt and pepper (Photo 9)
- Blitz to combine (Photo 10)
- Make the tart shells (Photo 11)
- Transfer the filling to a medium bowl (Photo 12)
Once the filling has been mixed together, you can start to make the pastry shells. To do this use a pastry or cookie cutter (I use a 6.5cm/2.55 inch cookie cutter) and press it into the centre of each slice of bread. Push down to cut the centre of the bread out, taking the round shape with curved perimter out. Repeat this process until you have all of the shells ready.
Then transfer the tart filling into a medium mixing bowl. Add the corn and stir it into the mix as you see in the photos below.
- Add the corn to the crab mixture (Photo 13)
- Then stir to combine (Photo 14)
- Press the bread shells into the pan (Photo 15)
- Spoon crab mixture into pan (Photo 16)
Next grease 2 12 hole patty pan or tart pans with cooking spray.
Once done, push the cut out bread circles into the patty pan so that they line the base of the tin.
Then take 2 teaspoons and use them to scoop the crab mixture into each bread shell. Aim for 1 heaped teaspoon per tart.
Once you have filled all of the tart shells, you can pop them into a preheated oven. The tartlets will take 10 to 12 minutes to cook and the bread and surface of the tarts will become light golden brown with some bronzed bits.
When the tarts are cooked, you can use a pair of oven mitts and remove the patty pan tins from the oven and place them onto a cooling rack.
🍽 Serving Suggestions
When it comes to serving your crab tartlets, you are likely going to want to pair them with a sauce.
For ease and convenience, a store bought sauce like sweet chilli sauce as pictured in the photos throughout the post will work well.
Or you can use a homemade sauce like the Parsley Yogurt Sauce, Basil Yogurt Sauce or the Gorgonzola Sauce for a little blue cheese kick.
You can also have a look at all of the homemade sauces on the blog if you want to be adventurous and come up with your own flavor pairing.
Some finely chopped chives sprinkled over the top of the small tarts are a great way to garnish and present them and then you are good to go!
👍 How to Guide
How to Store
To store the tarts let them cool then transfer them to a sealed, airtight container. They can be kept for 2-3 days and are best reheated before being consumed.
How to Freeze
I don't recommend freezing these tartlets. Due to the creamy cheese filling you are likely to come up against mixed results if choosing to freeze the tarts. As such they are best cooked and consumed or reheated and served not frozen along the way.
How to Reheat
You can pop the tarts into the air fryer on a moderate heat and reheat for about 5-6 minutes. This will ensure that they are heated through.
😉 Substitutions and Variations
Here are my sub ins and outs that you might be thinking about as you read the post and I will tell you if I think they will work or why they won't:
- I don't recommend using a regular white onion in place of the green onions. The green onion is are full of flavor and doesn't overwhelm with its flavor whereas a regular white onion would.
- If you want to use fresh crab meat from the seafood section of the delicatessan in place of the tinned crab meat you can. Whilst often more expensive to the regular tinned crab meat, this product gives you another option and crab meat that is more flaky than the tinned version.
- For an alternative to the corn kernels, you can use chopped red pepper (about ⅓ cup).
- You can use pecorino romano in place of the parmesan cheese if you wish too (equivalent amount).
- As an alternative to the djion mustard, you can use the equivalent amount of horseradish cream if you wish too.
- If you want to use store bought pastry cases to not have to make your own you can - choose a savory version 😉👌. Or give wonton wrappers a go!
💡 Tasty Tips
Here are my top tips and tricks that I want to share with you so that you master the recipe from the get go:
- The green onions need to be added to the food processor on their own as a starting point. They won't chop up finely if you add all of the ingredients at the same time in the initial step.
- If you want to use a rolling pin to flatten the bread round before putting them into the tart pan, you can. Or you can simply push the bread down with your fingers and it will stick to the cooking spray.
- Do you love festive baking? Then you might like the Fruit Mince or Fruit Mince Tarts recipes 😄👍.
🤓 Frequently Asked Questions
If you don't have a tartlet pan, you can use either a patty pan or mini muffin tin to achieve similar results. Always grease the pan you use so that it will be easy to get the tarts out of the pan once they are cooked.
No. Crab meat needs to be cooked before it can be consumed. Unlike tinned tuna the tinned crab meat is raw and unsafe to eat without being cooked 1st.
Tinned crab meat doesn't need to be rinsed before cooking. Simply use a can opener to open the tin and drain and discard any liquid prior to use.
😍 More Easy Party Recipes
If entertaining is your favorite thing (I hear you!) then you might like some more recipes up your sleeve so that you can whip them out as needed. Here are some more ideas to try:
- Baked Brie With Red Pepper Jelly
- Caramelised Onion Sausage Rolls
- Crumbed Mushrooms
- French Onion Cob Loaf
- Microwave Brie
- Air Fryer Chicken Skewers
- Cream Cheese Pepper Jelly
- Wagyu Meatballs
- Roast Beef Roll Ups
- Air Fryer Chicken Meatballs
Is is time to get our crab tartlets on my friend! You can also find all of my appetizer recipes or seafood recipes in the one spot.
Adrianne
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📖 Recipe
Crab Tartlets
Ingredients
- 3 green onions roots and tips trimmed, roughly chopped into 5 segements, Note 1
- 250 grams/ 9 oz cream cheese Room temperature, chopped into chunks, Note 2
- 170 grams/6 oz crab meat drained, not rinsed, Note 3
- ½ cup parmesan cheese finely grated using a microplane zester, Note 4
- 1 tablespoon djion mustard Note 5
- 2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 125 grams/4..4 oz corn kernels drained, not rinsed
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 12 white bread slices Note 6
Instructions
- Oven: preheat your oven to 180°C / 350-375°F / Gas Mark 4-5.
- Green onions: add the chopped segments of green onions to the food processor and blitz till they are chopped into fine pieces.
- Tart filling: then add the cream cheese, crab meat, parmesan cheese, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Blitz till combined then transfer to medium sized mixing bowl.
- Tart shells: use a clean dry chopping board and a 6.5cm (2.5 inch) pastry cutter to cut a round circle with fluted perimeter from each slice of bread.
- Corn: add the corn kernels to the tart filling and use a spatula to stir and gently fold the kernels into the mixture.
- Patty pan: grease 2 12 hole patty pans or tart pans with cooking spray. Then working one at a time push the bread rounds into the patty pan so that they stick to the oil and form the tartlet shells.
- Fill: working with 2 teapoons (1 in each hand) spoon a heaped teaspoon of the tart filling into each of the tart shells. Repeat to fill all of the tarts.
- Oven bake: place the patty pans into the oven and let the tarts cook for 10 till 12 minutes. Once cooked, use a pair of oven mitts to remove the patty pans and place them onto a wire cooling rack.
- To serve: use a teaspoon to gently push the tarts of out the pan. Plate with and garnish with some freshly chopped chives. Provide a small bowl of sweet chilli sauce and serve warm.
Notes
- Note 1 - Green onions: this type of onion is much softer and more delicate than a regular white onion. We want to trim the roots and tops from the green onions then roughly chop these into 4 segments. These segments then get added to the food processor bowl as a means to finely chop them. We need to do this step at the start before adding other ingredients so that the blades can chop the onions. They won't chop as finely if you add all of the ingredients at the same time and try to chop them then.
- Note 2 - Cream cheese: you will find it easiest to chop the cream cheese into chunks. This way it get be spread across the food processor bowl when it is added. This will eliminate the bowl from being overbalanced with all of the cheese on one side.
- Note 3 - Crab meat: tinned crab meat from the tuna and sardine aisle in the supermarket will be the most readily available. This only needs to be drained before being added to the mix. Or you can head to the seafood section of the deli where you will find more premium crab meat such as blue swimmer crab. This is often more expensive, but bolder in flavor and has no liquid to be drained from it. Both options will work for the recipe. Neither option need to be rinsed before using (unless specified on the packet).
- Note 4 - Parmesan cheese: or the equivalent of pecorino romano cheese. Fresh cheese that you grate yourself will give you better results than using store bought pre grated cheese.
- Note 5 - Djion mustard: this is smooth and has a little tang to it. You can use horseradish cream in its place.
- Note 6 - White bread: if you start right at a corner of the bread, you can often get 2 rounds out of each slice. This will save you from using a whole slice and disguarding it. However, if doing so, you have to be a little bit carefull to not get the crust of the bread in the round as it won't mold as well into the patty pan to form the shells.
Belinda says
Great sounding appetizer! I love that they don't take long to make.
Adrianne says
Thanks Belinda 😄.