Gluten Free Butter Tarts
Butter Tarts are a popular Canadian dessert. This recipe is just for the filling, you need to buy or make your own gluten-free tart shells to put the filling into.
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons melted butter
- pinch of salt
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 2/3 cup re-hydrated raisins (see below)
- 1/2 cup corn syrup
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
Notes
To rehydrate the raisins, I put them in a microwave save bowl, cover with water, and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. I then let them sit for 5 minutes, and drain before using. This way, they won't be dried out and "stealing" liquid from your recipe.
Gluten Free Pie Crust for Anything
This dough can be used to make tarts or pie crusts. I used this dough for the tart shells for my Butter Tarts, and it worked beautifully and tasted great. This recipe was submitted by my friend Tamara to the Holiday Baking E-Book that I compiled in November, 2010.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups gluten-free flour mix (see NOTE)
- 1 cup shortening (I prefer doing 1/2 shortening, 1/2 butter)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1 large egg (yes, it HAS to be large)
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup cold water
Instructions
Tip for Pie Crust: Wipe your counter with a damp cloth. Lay plastic wrap on the counter, overlapping to make a piece bigger than you want to roll your crust. Place dough on plastic wrap, cover with another sheet of plastic wrap, and roll to desired size. Remove the top layer of plastic wrap, and lift the dough, along with the plastic wrap that you rolled it out on, and carefully place the dough over your pie plate. Pushing on the plastic wrap, form the dough to the pie plate. Carefully peel the plastic wrap off, and you have one pie crust ready to bake or fill.
Notes
Flour Mix (makes 9 cups total):
3 cups brown rice flour (finely ground)
3 cups white rice flour (finely ground)
2 cups potato starch (NOT potato flour!)
1 cup tapioca starch
As long as you make the 3:3:2:1 ratio, you can cut/multiply this down/up to any size. The ratio for 3 cups flour mix is 1:1:2/3:1/3.
Dinners and Dreams says
I love to bake GF but so far I've only made cakes. Great pie crust recipe.
Nisrine
betty r says
You are a wonder woman Jeanine..you can make anything gluten free..way to go! Great photo.
Neva says
What is the note about the raisins? Do you soak them in water?
Thanks
Jeanine says
Nisrine, you'll do great with gf baking, if you can do cakes. 🙂
Thanks, Betty! I get a lot of help, the internet has a fantastic community of great GF bakers.
Neva, so sorry! Totally forgot to add a note, I've added it now though. Thanks for pointing that out!
Kim-Cook it Allergy Free says
Jeanine, my Mom has always made a similar treat. She called them Pecan Sandies. YUM! These look awesome. I cannot wait to try them. And they look so so easy to do. Love this pie crust recipe too!
Sarah says
My friend makes these with gluten and they are my favorite holiday treat that she makes. Now I can make them for everyone at our house.
Jeanine says
Kim, Pecan Sandies, huh? Guess different regions have different names. Either way, I'm sure they're both delicious!
Sarah, I'm sure you'll all enjoy these GF ones, no one will know the difference.
Paul says
Mmm … butter tarts, so yummy.
Thank you for the excellent post and the extra pounds that will surely follow haha!
Jeanine says
Ha, let me tell you, food blogging is not good on the waist line! But, everything in moderation. 😉
Tasty Eats At Home says
Ooh, these little tarts could be really addictive. Yum.
Paul says
@Jeanine
agreed!
Heather Smith (519-267-1677) says
O-M-G! Jeanine, this is a fantastic pastry recipe…the best I have ever tried, GF or otherwise. I haven't tried the butter tarts, yet, but it was oh so yummy in my Strawberry Rhubarb Pie today.
Mmmmmm! :o9
Tanya C says
Hi Jeanine! This is the best gf pastry I have tried! Thanks for sharing. I love that it does not break apart during the rolling out process or transferring it to the pan. My girlfriend tried it and said it did not taste gluten free:) I have used it for meat pies and am now going to use it for jam tarts. Thanks again 🙂
Darlene says
I have just found your site…Tried the pastry and yes it was GREAT for gf……I rolled it on my counter with some sweet rice for tarts..It worked well but l wonder if l had enough water as when putting into tins some of the pastery split but fixed dough with alittle water…..maybe l should of used wax paper to roll….anyway the end result was perfect…just like the flour ones l used to make…Thanks for sharing.
Elaine says
Hi Jeanine, you asked on FB for people to comment on any recipes of yours that they tried over the holidays. I made these tarts twice – the first time I followed the pastry recipe exactly and they were good, however, I had used a couple of other GF pie crust recipes that called for butter, or at least half butter and half shortening – liked the butter in the pastry. So……made them again and used half butter, half shortening and only 1/2 tsp. salt. MUCH BETTER!!! Also – used muffin papers and it worked out great – no mess and no problem getting them out of the muffin pans!! Also – used all chopped pecans instead of a mix of nuts & raisins. I put 1 cup of chopped pecans in the tart filling. Wonderful tarts!!!!
Barb says
Hi! I would love to try these. Two questions. Did you prebake the tart crust first? What is an estimate of how long the filling takes to set? Thank you!
Jeanine Friesen says
Hi Barb, I didn’t prebake the tarts, just pressed them down, filled them, and baked. How long you bake them will depend on whether you are making standard 3″ tarts, or mini tarts, like I did. The larger tarts could take 15-20 minutes to bake. Once they cool, they set up though.
Joanie says
Hi Jeanine,
I’ve been hunting for a good pie crust recipe. I will try this one but would like to know if I can substitute a different shortening. My reason is the crisco-type classic shortening has trans-fats (I think) because the oils are hydrogenated to make the shortening solid at room temperature.
Your thoughts? Would coconut oil work for this?
I love your recipes and your website – thank you very much for making these wonderful things available!
Joanie
Jeanine Friesen says
You can do 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening with success, but I haven’t tried using coconut oil at all. If you do try, please let me know how it works!
Evelyn says
Hi Jeanine…..Can you use lard instead of shortening for your pie crust? Thanks Evelyn
Jeanine Friesen says
Hi Evelyn, I’ve never tried using lard, but I have done 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening without any problems. I’d think if you used lard in the past for wheat-based pie crusts, it ‘should’ work here too.
paul says
hi Jeanine
I was gluten free surfing last week, and I have no idea how many left turn links I made, but I somehow ended up on your pie dough butter tart page.
this is a book marker.
I am the celiac in our family and fortunately I also like to cook and bake. I have no idea how celiac people survive that can’t cook and bake.
my entire family love these butter tarts. have you tried freezing them. I would like to try it so I can hide them in the back of the freezer so I can have a few.
thanks for the wonderful site and recipes.
paul
edmonton, canada
Jeanine Friesen says
Welcome here, Paul! 🙂 No matter how you found your way here, glad to have you. I’ve often wondered how those that don’t like to cook & bake survive, but I guess that’s where the multi-million dollar sales in gluten-free foods comes from.
To answer your question – these tarts do freeze beautifully! I usually make them a few weeks before Christmas & store them in the freezer to take out a few at a time, and it works great.
katherine says
I made a pecan pie for thanksgiving with this pie recipe and it was amazing! I used lard in place of the shortening and, while it smelled like bacon when it was baking, it didn’t taste like it at all! It was so flaky and buttery, my fam couldn’t believe it was gluten free! Thank you so much for your recipe. I’m about to go make another pie tonight! 🙂
Chrstine says
Your recipe saved my tourtierre today. I had tried another pie crust recipe on two days ago and it was horrible! I really thought we’d have to do with out our Christmas Eve tradition this year. Thank you!
Lesley says
Can you omit the vinegar? It’s the only ingredient I don’t have on hand.
In comparison to regular pastry does it roll well? I have tried a few GF pastry recipes and the dough is always crumbly and fragile and I end up moulding the tarts by hand – they pastry tastes great but its way too time consuming!
Jeanine Friesen says
If you don’t have vinegar, do you have apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice? I’d replace it with one of those.
As long as you roll the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap, then use the wrap to lift & form the dough into the pie plate, it works great! Otherwise, it could maybe be a problem, but leave it on the plastic wrap, and it should work just fine. 🙂
Tina says
I am allergic to eggs. Can I substitute anything to replace the egg?
Jeanine says
Sorry, Tina, I’ve never tried replacing the eggs in this recipe.
Karen says
This is the BEST pie crust! You cannot tell that this is GF at all. I did use all butter, no shortening (personal preference). The pie not only looked beautiful but tasted delish! I will never buy a GF pie crust mix again as this is way way better. Thanks always Jeanine for sharing your recipes.
Jeanine says
So glad to hear that you like it, Karen! It really is a great recipe, and homemade from scratch is always better than bought. 😉
Kathleen Midgley says
I am new to cooking could you tell me what Use stand mixer and non-whisk is. Is a plain hand or stand mixer.
Thank you,
Kathleen
Stephanie says
Hi Jeanine, this is the only pie crust I use and love it! I have never tried freezing it after being baked, have you? I would like to pre-make these for Christmas. Thank you!
Elizabeth Johnston says
I’ve been put on a fodmap diet by my gastronologist. No gluten, no dairy, etc. I need some easy recipes to make bread, baking ideas, etc. There is just the 2 of us at home and I really don’t want to make 2 different meals….can you help me please?