Currant and Pine Nut Butter Tart

Holy Moses.

Imagine a pecan pie, but in tart form, and without the pecans but with currents and pine nuts instead. Clear as mud?

All you have to know is this:

This.

Dessert.

Rocks.

The pastry is flaky, light, and easy to make (i.e.: no rolling required! Just press into your tart pan and you’re good to go!).
The filling is just like a butter tart (which Americans just don’t know about… such a shame), which is like the goo you find in a pecan pie (check out my novel Pecanless Pecan Pie for a diatribe on goo) housed in a tart shell. Butter tarts usually have raisins in them, which as a kid was a bit of a roadblock for me (meaning I’d just spit them out after sucking the goo off them with each bite)… and so this tart has been all grown-up-ified, sans raisins. Pine nuts and currents make it a little bit fancy. And they totally work here- pine nuts are buttery as it is, and when you toast them- well- don’t get me started. And currents are just the cool cousins of raisins.

(Flashback- I used to work in a restaurant that served butter tarts [along with many other incredible baked goods delivered on a truck every morning, like tea biscuits and a kind of oat bran muffin that I’ve been forever trying to replicate- to no avail as of yet], and I inhaled them like they were going out of style. I was in grade nine, so my metabolism was very forgiving. I do recall thinking “I probably shouldn’t be having six of these” on one shift, and so I conceived of the brilliant idea to chew the next butter tart in front of me and then spit it out [in the back, silly, not in front of customers]. I actually thought it might be fulfilling to get the taste of the tart and not really consume it. Not even close. I learned that day, hovered over the garbage in my apron and bonnet [yes, I had to wear a bonnet], that the satisfaction of a butter tart came from both chewing it and swallowing it. You can spit out the raisins, sure, but the whole damned tart? Don’t even think about trying it.)

Adapted from Tamarind & Thyme’s recipe…

PASTRY:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons sugar
pinch salt
5 tablespoons (1/3 cup) butter, unsalted and very cold, diced
2 tablespoons ice water
1 teaspoon white vinegar

FILLING:
1 egg, beaten
5 tablespoons (1/3 cup) butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup dried currants
2 tablespoons rum (optional)
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
1. PASTRY: In a food processor, whirl together flour, sugar and salt. Pulse in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Drizzle in the vinegar and the cold water and pulse until the wet ingredients are integrated; the mixture should still be very crumbly (like the picture below). (Feel free to do this by hand using two knives or a pastry cutter.)
2. For little tarts, use a muffin tin. For a large tart, use a 8 or 9″ tart pan with a removable bottom. Press dough into the tart pan, across bottom and up sides. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
3. In a small bowl, mix the rum with about 2 tablespoons of hot water and soak the currants for about 10 minutes. Drain currents and set aside.
4. Preheat oven to 375°.
5. FILLING: In a medium bowl, stir together the egg, softened butter, brown sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth and then stir in the soaked currants and toasted pine nuts. Pour into the chilled tart shell and bake until filling is set and pastry is golden (about 30 minutes).
Tips:
- Want little butter tarts? Just form crusts into your muffin tin, and bake for about 15 – 18 minutes. (These are great because you don’t have to cut into a tart, and you have your own little pasty dessert all to yourself.)
- Make sure to chill the dough before baking it. If you don’t, well, it’ll lose its shape and you’ll want to blame me even though I warned you.
- Want to skip the rum? Party pooper. But really- it’s totally fine. Just add in an extra tablespoon of vanilla or rum extract. Or you can still use rum but decrease the amount to 1 tablespoon if you want less rum flavor.
- You can swap the pine nuts for… walnuts or pecans, for sure. Just chop ’em up. (And toast them first! In a frying pan on medium-high or in your oven on a pan…)
- You can swap currents for… raisins. Or wait- how about dried cranberries. Is that crazy?
- Place a cookie sheet on the rack underneath the pie as it bakes, because your tart just might ooze and drip on you as it bakes. Your oven will thank you.
- Enjoy!
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August 11th, 2013 | More Sweets Please | 2 Comments | Tags: Goopy, Nuts, Tarts