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Brown Butter Maple Bacon Butter Tarts

Brown Butter Maple Bacon Butter Tarts

The classic Canadian pastry treat, the Butter Tart, gets the all-star treatment with the addition of bacon and maple syrup, an iconic Canadian flavour duo.  In addition, browning the butter adds a lovely nuttiness and depth to the filling flavour.  Ooey, gooey, the best little pastry ever!

Course Dessert
Cuisine North American
Keyword bacon, brown butter, maple syrup, pie pastry
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 12

Ingredients

Pastry

  • 1 1/4 cups AP flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour, see Notes
  • 1/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick; 8 tbsp butter) frozen or chilled
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tbsp white vinegar or fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • 4 tbsp cold water, or more

Filling

  • 1/2 cup cooked, crumbled bacon (this can be made in advance, and stored in the fridge till needed) See Notes
  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick; 4 tbsp) butter
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup, don't use substitutes, please!
  • 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp backstrap molasses
  • Maldon or other finishing salt

Instructions

Pastry

  1. Whisk the flour and salt together in a medium sized bowl.
  2. Grate in the butter quickly to keep it cold
  3. Toss together to coat the butter and distribute it evenly throughout the flour.

  4. Whisk the egg, vinegar and 4 tbsp cold water together in a small bowl.  On a very dry day (winter, heat on) you may actually need another tbsp of water.  

  5. Drizzle this over the flour mixture and toss it to get the liquid evenly distributed.

  6. Fold it together in the bowl with your hands till a rough ball forms.  If it isn't coming together, add one more tbsp of water.  In dry kitchens (winter, heat on) it may easily need a touch more water.

  7. Transfer to a floured surface and continue to quickly bring the dough together. Pat it into a disk, wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

  8. When ready to use, bring to room temperature on the counter.  If chilling in the fridge overnight, you will need to give it some time to warm up again.

  9. Take a 12 cup muffin tin and spray or grease as you want.
  10. Flour the surface well, along with your rolling pin, and roll the disk out to 1/6 of an inch.
  11. Using a 4 inch (10 cm) cookie or biscuit cutter, create rounds out of all the dough. Take the scraps and set aside.

  12. Using your rolling pin, roll each round out gently to a 5 inch circle. It should now be 1/8 of an inch thick, but hopefully a little thicker in the middle. Perfect. Don't roll any thinner- they need to hold the weight of the filling once baked.  Having the middle thicker will help create stability.

  13. Take each round and gently create folds or pleats and place into one of the muffin wells. Let it sink into the well, helping the edges along by pleating as needed. They shouldn't look perfect, this is part of their charm. The sides of the pastry should be as high or slightly higher than the muffin tin well.  They will shrink during baking, this way, they won't go too far down.

  14. Continue with the scraps of dough, rolling out again, and making rounds, till all the muffin wells are filled.  You may find that the scraps will shrink a bit when rolling and then cutting out.  Roll out the dough and then give the dough some time to rest before cutting. Roll out to 5 inches. Fit into the muffin tin.

Filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 375F
  2. *Have your bacon prepared by chopping and sautéing enough bacon to create 1/2 cup cooked and drained. The amount you start with will depend on the type of bacon you are using. I would hesitate to suggest using thick cut, as the pieces may be too large for the filling- they would take over the tart. A lovely double smoked will work, as well as any good quality low sodium bacon. Let it cool and drain completely.
  3. *Brown the butter. Cut the butter into a few even pieces. Place the butter in a small pot and heat on medium. Do not use too a high a heat (see above in the blog post for trouble shooting)

  4. Once you have gone through all the stages (from foaming to light tan to toasty brown with solid bits on the bottom of the pan, it is has a fragrant nutty aroma, remove and let the butter cool.

  5. Now you are ready to make the filling.
  6. You can use a hand mixer, or a whisk. Beat the eggs, brown sugar and salt until very smooth.
  7. Add the maple syrup, the apple cider vinegar, the backstrap molasses, and the cooled brown butter. Beat or whisk vigorously for a few more minutes.
  8. Gently stir in the crumbled cooled bacon.
  9. Fill each pastry shell 2/3 full with the filling.
  10. Bake the butter tarts till the filling is bubbling and the crust is golden, about 20-22 minutes.
  11. Remove to a cooling rack and sprinkle each tart with finishing salt.

  12. Cool in the muffin tin on a cooling rack for at least 20 minutes. Remove to finish cooling, ideally using a small offset spatula to gently loosen to lift out.

  13. These will keep for several days in an airtight container.

Recipe Notes

If you would like to add the flavour of rye to your pastry (such a lovely addition) then replace the whole wheat flour with 1/2 cup All Purpose flour and 1/2 cup Rye flour.

For a fun substitute to the bacon, feel free to make my Espresso Maple Bourbon Bacon first and then chop once cooled.