Tomorrow is the St. Philip’s Roast Beef Dinner. We decided that for dessert, we will be offering several bite size options. I decided to contribute something, and am going with my Cranberry Raisin Butter Tarts.
This post is from 2014. Although I originally wrote it in conjunction with that year’s Roast Beef Dinner at St. Philip’s, I’ve found that in the ensuing years it’s a more popular read around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
This was a recipe I decide to adapt several years ago. I took a standard butter tart recipe and made it Cranberry Raisin. Part of the reason was that when I was buying the shells(I don’t make my own pastry) they were only available as 12s or 30s. The 30s were a lot cheaper by unit, plus, I liked the idea of something that would cut some of the sweetness out of your typical butter tart. It was the height of the holiday season when I first made them so that Cranberries were also a good buy (Hey, I’m Scottish)
Cranberry Raisin Butter Tarts Recipe:
30 – 3 inch tart shells
1- cup corn syrup
2/3 – cup brown sugar (I almost always use demerera in recipes that call for brown sugar
2 – eggs slightly beaten
1/4 – cup butter
1 – 300 gram bag fresh cranberries
200 grams Thompson Seedless Raisins
100 grams slivered or sliced almonds
1 tbl frozen Orange Juice concentrate
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
If you want to do things quickly, mix your cranberries, raisins, and almonds into the syrup. I prefer to start with those ingredients. I add 3 or 4 cranberries to each shell, followed by the raisins, followed by the almonds. I find when I do that I can easily guarantee that each of the tarts has some solids as part of it’s filling.
I then mix all the other ingredients together in a medium to heavy saucepan on the stove. It’s helpful to bring the butter up to room temperature before you add the sugar and corn syrup. When I measure the corn syrup, I generally fill a one cup measure and let it overflow a bit. That way I always get the full one cup.
Beat the melted brown sugar into the eggs. I then add the orange juice concentrate, salt, and vanilla extract into the mixture. Using a small measuring cup, I ladle the syrup into the Cranberry Raisin mixture. I then put in the oven at 175 degrees C or 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. I then check them and either remove or allow extra time for the pastry to brown a little more.
