Butter Tarts
From the first bite of a homemade Butter Tart you can begin to understand how amazing this Canadian recipe is from the homemade pastry that is flaky to the golden brown lightly caramelized filling will have you wishing you baked a double batch!
Servings 18
Calories 236kcal
Ingredients
Pastry
- 257 grams / 1 ½ cups + 2 tablespoons plain flour
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 75 grams / 5 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon cold butter cubed
- 18 grams / 1 large egg yolk room temperature
- 5 grams / 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 80 milliliters / ⅓ cup ice water
Filling
- 28 grams / 2 tablespoons butter softened
- 100 grams / ½ cup brown sugar
- 79 grams / ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 85 grams / ¼ cup corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 grams / 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon sea or kosher salt
- 110 grams / 2 large eggs room temperature
- 80 grams / ½ cup raisins
Instructions
Pastry
- Place the flour and salt in a bowl and stir to combine.
- Add in the cubed butter and with a pastry cutter or fork, knead the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles large breadcrumbs.
- Make a well in the center and add in the egg yolk, apple cider vinegar and ? cup of the ice water and mix until a dough begins to form, adding a tablespoon amount of ice water at a time, as needed, for the mixture to hold when pressed together.
- Shape into a disc shape, cover and refrigerate for minimum of 1 hour, until well chilled.
- Once the dough is well chilled, remove from the fridge and place onto a lightly floured surface.
- Roll the pastry out to ¼ inch thickness and with a pastry or round cookie cutter, to fit into your tart or muffin tin.
- Press into your pans firmly from the base upwards. Cut away any excess dough that sits well above the muffin cups.
- Place in the freezer for a minimum of 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180°C/360F.
- Cover the frozen tarts with aluminum foil and fill with baking beans or rice right up to the top edge of your pastries.
- Place in the oven and bake for approximately 15 minutes, remove the foil and beans or rice and cook for a further 10 minutes until golden.
- Remove and allow to cool to room temperature.
Filling
- Meanwhile, to make the filling cream the butter and brown sugar until pale, approximately 3 minutes with a hand mixer.
- Add the maple and corn syrup's and beat until combined, approximately 30 seconds.
- Add your vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar, salt, and eggs and beat on medium until well combined, approximately 1 minute with a hand mixer.
- Place a few raisins into each of the pastry shells and then pour the runny filling over the top.
- Bake in the oven until golden and no longer jiggly, approximately 15 minutes.
- Remove and allow to cool in the tin until it's cool enough to handle.
- Carefully remove from the tins and place on a rack until fully cooled.
- Serve at room temperature.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Flour in the UK: Plain flour in the UK has a lower protein amount which contributes to the dough strength, type of crumb and texture of your pastry, in this case. Plain flour in the Unites States, for example, has the same level of protein as Bread flour in the UK. The best flour to use here will be 220 grams / 1 ½ cups + 2 tablespoons bread flour. This will help you ensure a flaky pastry and making it easier to shape without being flimsy which is often the feeling of unbaked dough.
- Apple Cider Vinegar: The acidity in the vinegar helps give our pastry the flaky texture and offsets the sweetness in the filling.
- Brown sugar, maple syrup and corn syrup: The three types of sweetener add a depth of flavor to give the tarts that gooey texture. The brown sugar could be substituted with raw sugar.
- Baking time: The baking time is for 1 regular muffin tray, for the full recipe it will be 1 hour 20 minutes of total baking time.
- Muffin tin: Your tarts are best made in a standard muffin pan.
- Make these your own: One of the best things about this tart recipe is that you can customize the fillings to your liking. You can opt for store-bought pie crusts or rather pastry. For the filling, traditional raisins or chopped nuts are great, but you can get creative and add ingredients like pecans, chocolate chips, or even dried cranberries.
Nutrition
Calories: 236kcal