BEST BUTTER TARTS (Canadian Living)

By jarren

Ingredients

• Crust:
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cold butter, cubed
• 1/4 cup lard, cubed
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vinegar
• Ice water
• Filling:
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup corn syrup
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/4 cup currants or raisins
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut (optional)

Details

Servings 12

Preparation

Step 1

Crust:

In large bowl, whisk flour with salt. With pastry blender, cut in butter and lard until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few larger pieces.

In liquid measure, whisk egg yolk with vinegar; add enough ice water to make 1/3 cup. Sprinkle over flour mixture, stirring briskly with fork until pastry holds together. Press into disc; wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour. Make-ahead: Refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Filling:

In bowl, whisk together brown sugar, corn syrup, egg, butter, vanilla, vinegar and salt until blended; set aside.

On lightly floured surface, roll out pastry to 1/8" thickness. Using 4" round cookie cutter, cut our 12 circles, re-rolling scraps once, if necessary. Fit into 2 3/4" x 1 1/4" muffin cups. Divide currants among shells. Spoon in filling until 3/4 full.

Bake in bottom third of 450F oven until filling is puffed and bubbly and pastry is golden, about 12 minutes. Let stand on rack for 1 minute. Run metal spatula around tarts to loosen; carefully slide spatula under tarts and transfer to rack to let cool.

Optional: Drizzle cooled tarts with 2 oz melted semisweet chocolate.

Not-so-Gooey Butter Tarts: Increase brown sugar to 3/4 cup; decrease corn syrup to 1/4 cup.