So I have a confession to make.
I was pretty late to jump on the brown butter bandwagon.
Everyone was brown-buttering everything. I joined in too, and made some pretty yummy brown butter chocolate chip cookies.
But I wasn’t convinced. I wasn’t going crazy for it, and I wasn’t putting it in everything.
Until I made these tarts. And then I fell in love.
We sell tarts at work, and to keep customers (and myself) interested, I try and change the flavours regularly, even every day if I can.
There are a few recurring favourites (stay tuned for a salted caramel chocolate tart post soon!), but the rest of the time I’m always trying something new.
The first time I baked this brown butter tart recipe, I fell in love. With the tart. With the batter (I could quite seriously drink the stuff raw). And with brown butter.
I love this brown butter tart so much – it’s such an easy, versatile and delicious recipe.
I have made it again and again, at work, at home, and with poached pears instead of raspberries (also very delicious!). I even want to try a blueberry version at the bakery this week. Feel free to play with it. And enjoy!
- For the tart pastry:
- 90g unsalted butter (3 oz)
- 3 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 cup flour (150g, 5 oz)
- For the brown butter filling:
- 110g unsalted butter (1/2 cup)
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Pinch of salt
- ¼ cup plain flour
- ½ - 1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen
- To make the tart pastry, preheat the oven to 200 C (400 F) and get out a muffin pan.
- Place the butter, water, oil, sugar and salt in an overproof bowl.
- Put the bowl in the oven for about 15 minutes, until the butter is melted, bubbling, and just beginning to brown around the edges.
- Carefully remove the bowl from the oven and dump in the flour. Stir quickly, until the dough comes together and pulls away from the side of the dish.
- Put a tablespoon of dough into one muffin hole, and press it into the base and up the sides using your fingers. Repeat until all the dough has been used.
- Prick the dough with a fork once or twice.
- Bake for 8 - 12 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown all over.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.
- To make the tart filling, reduce the oven to 180 C (350 F).
- Put the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat. We're going to brown it! Cook it over a medium-high heat until there are brown flecks at the bottom of the pan. Watch the butter closely, it will melt, then spit, foam up, and then settle back down. It will smell nutty as it browns - be careful not to burn it. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, vanilla and salt. Whisk in the flour. Then pour in the browned butter in a steady stream, whisking constantly.
- Arrange raspberries in the bottom of each tart shell, tops facing up.
- Pour over the brown butter filling until it almost fills the shells.
- Bake for 10 - 15 minutes, until lightly golden and set in the center.
- Allow to cool slightly before removing from the muffin pan and enjoy! Makes 10 tarts.
- Happy baking!
Tart filling adapted from Epicurious.
Tart pastry adapted from David Lebovitz.