- 12
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)
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.