Maple Pecan Butter Tarts
I’ll be honest… I’m not a huge fan of butter tarts.
I think it relates back to my strong dislike (read, hatred) of raisins… I’ve bitten into too many butter tarts just to be grossed out by the raisins hidden inside.
It’s jaded me against what is arguably a delicious Canadian tradition.
My lack of trust for butter tarts in general has made me a stickler for making them myself, if only to ensure that there are no raisins present. Also, my husband really likes them… so that’s a definite plus. And really pecans are a whole lot better than raisins in my humble opinion.
When making these I wanted to steer clear of using corn syrup, so they are a little bit more gooey than tarts you may have had in the past. But please don’t let that keep you from trying these out because they are really good, and arguably even a bit better than really good when served warm with a scoop of real vanilla ice cream! It’s worth making your own simple crust rather than using the store bought frozen ones. The little bit of extra time and effort really makes a difference here.
I hope you enjoy this recipe, and that it becomes a regular in your holiday repertoire - although, I will be mad if you add any raisins, I'm sorry, that’s just the way it has to be. ;)
Maple Pecan Butter Tarts
Makes 12 Tarts
Tools: Food processor, medium sized bowl, muffin tin, rolling pin, 3 inch cookie cutter (or glass to trace around).
Ingredients:
For the tart crust
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
6 tablespoons ice water
For the tart filling
1 3/4 cups brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 eggs, room temperature
1 1/3 cup pecans, chopped
Prepare your muffin tin by lightly greasing each well with butter, set aside.
Prepare the tart crust: (This is most easily done in a food processor but can be done by hand as well). Pulse together the flour and salt. Open the lid completely and add the butter on top. Pulse again until the mixture just starts to come together (it will look like pea-sized lumps). Add in the ice water and pulse until a shaggy dough starts to form. Lightly flour your counter and transfer the dough onto it - kneading until it just comes together. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put into the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
While the dough is resting you can get the filling together by combining all of the ingredients in a medium sized bowl. At this point you can also preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
*Once the dough has rested* remove from the fridge to a lightly floured work surface. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick and cut out using a 3 inch cookie cutter (you can also use the inside of a drinking glass to cut circles as well!). Once you’ve cut the circles roll each out evenly into a 1/8 inch thickness and put into the wells of your pan, pressing gently into the bottom and folding the top edges as needed to fit into the pan.
Fill the crusts about 2/3 full of the pecan mixture and bake in your preheated oven for 22-25 minutes or until the crusts are a golden brown colour.
Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 2-3 minutes before transferring the tarts to a cooking rack to cool completely.
Happy eating! Xo
