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Vegan Pecan Butter Tarts

March 17, 2015 by Lisa Le 15 Comments

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Vegan Pecan Butter Tarts

Vegan Pecan Butter Tarts

You heard me. Raisins don’t belong anywhere near a butter tart. Either give them to me plain, or give them to me loaded with pecans, but raisins are mushy, sad, hidden jerks that lurk at the bottom of your butter tart and hit you when you least expect it.

But first, rewind.

Have you ever heard of a butter tart? I’ve grown up with these, despite my Vietnamese up-bringing. I don’t really remember where I had them. They were around for potlucks, and sometimes at the grocery store bakeries in trays of six.  They’re basically tarts that are filled with almost a sticky, gooey caramel filling. Traditionally they have little hidden raisin gems at the bottom of the sticky filling, but I never liked those (clearly.)

Vegan Pecan Butter Tarts
Vegan Pecan Butter Tarts

Raisins belong in trail mix. That’s it. They’re acceptable in oatmeal raisin cookies ONLY when I’m expecting them.

chocolate chip cookies

Image from: Second Floor

If I’m expecting a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie, those raisins are nothing but LIES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS. If I wanted the empty, soul-less shells that are raisins, I would have just eaten a grape. Get out of my baked goods, raisins. Carrot cake, butter tarts, and cookies are better without you.

Vegan Pecan Butter Tarts

I like to load up my butter tarts with pecans. You can keep them whole, half the amount of pecans I put in, or be rad like me and keep it pecantastic. They are ridiculously addicting and perfect for holiday parties (I know I’m a few months too late, but hey, I don’t like following trends.)

I used the remaining pie crust from my pecan pie recipe, but I’ve halved my pie crust recipe below so there’s less clicking involved for you. The filling isn’t as gooey and solid as my pecan pie, since these are typically a bit runnier. The added butter and increase of pecans make these slightly different but so delicious. Again, no tofu, no corn syrup. Mostly just sugar and pecans. More crust to filling ratio = happy Lisa. I mean, I love maple and sugar, but how can you resist perfectly flaky crust?
Vegan Pecan Butter Tarts

Continue to Content
Yield: 16

Vegan Pecan Butter Tarts

Vegan Pecan Butter Tarts
Prep Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients

For the tart shells:

  • Half a stick 1/4 cup vegan buttery sticks, cold and cut into cubes
  • Half a stick (1/4 cup) vegan shortening), cold and cut into cubes
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour + flour for rolling
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp white sugar
  • 5 tbsp (75 mL) ice water

Pecan Filling:

  • 1 tbsp flax meal
  • 3 tbsp warm water
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 1/3 cup pecan pieces
  • 3 tbsp vegan butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

    For the tart shells:

    1. In a food processor (or if you don't have one of those, a large mixing bowl and a pastry knife), blitz butter, shortening, sugar, flour, and salt until the butter and shortening is about pea sized. Pour in ice water and mix until just combined. Transfer to a clean countertop and shape into a disc. Wrap with plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
    2. Once chilled, remove from fridge and roll out until Â1/4 inch thick, thinner if possible. Use a glass or cookie cutter to cut circles to fit into your cupcake pan. Use a fork to poke holes in the bottom to prevent air bubbles. Bake at 325ºF for about 10 minutes. The crust will shrink a little bit, depending on your pan, so give it about Â1/2 inch to shrink down to. Remove from oven and set aside.

    Pecan Filling:

    1. In a small pot, combine white sugar, maple syrup, flax mixture, butter, and stir over medium low heat until sugar is dissolved (about 5 minutes). Turn off heat, stir in vanilla extract and pecan pieces, and spoon mixture into to the par-baked tart shells. Be careful to not overfill and give the mixture room to bubble up without overflowing.
    2. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until the edges of the tart shells are lightly golden. Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack. If any of the pecan sugar mixture leaked out, you might have to gently separate the tarts from the pan using a knife.
    © Lisa Le

    Pecan Butter Tarts | The Viet Vegan | Sweet, crisp, buttery and totally dairy-free!

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    Filed Under: Baking, Dessert, Vegan recipes Tagged With: butter tarts, pecan, pie, vegan

    About Lisa Le

    Lisa is the thirty-something, nerdy, procrastinating, feminist blogger and photographer behind The Viet Vegan. She loves spicy foods, noodles, and food in bowls.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Taylor says

      March 19, 2015 at 4:45 PM

      I love the new look of the blog, Lisa! And I have the same exact feelings about raisins. They should be banished from baked goods forever.

      Reply
      • Lisa Le says

        March 19, 2015 at 4:51 PM

        Thanks Taylor! Thank goodness people are seeing reason about this whole raisin thing. I know way too many people who like them in baked goods haha

        Reply
        • Laura says

          May 12, 2017 at 7:11 PM

          Hey now, us raisin-lovers are people! :)

          Reply
          • Lisa Le says

            May 12, 2017 at 11:27 PM

            Hmmm you say people but all I hear is soulless grape lover XD

            Reply
    2. Kate says

      January 26, 2016 at 1:21 PM

      Hi Lisa,

      Would you ever attempt to make these gluten-free?

      Thanks
      Kate

      Reply
      • Lisa Le says

        February 4, 2016 at 10:19 PM

        Hi Kate,

        I’m pretty sure you can sub gluten-free flour and perhaps add a tsp of xanthan gum and achieve the same results =)

        Reply
    3. Heather says

      October 9, 2016 at 12:49 AM

      I just made these for a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner and they turned out great! I used a slightly different crust with just vegan butter and flour and skipped the par-baking, still came out nice and flaky :) I totally agree that raisins are the worst ;) Thanks for the recipe!

      Reply
      • Lisa Le says

        October 12, 2016 at 8:19 PM

        Glad you enjoyed it! And YES a reasonable person who agrees with me XD

        Reply
    4. Shelby says

      December 20, 2017 at 12:49 PM

      Hi Lisa – hypothetically speaking… let’s say that someone loves raisins, could they swap out the 1/3 cup of pecans with 1/3 cup of raisins? Asking for a friend lol ;)

      Reply
      • Lisa Le says

        December 20, 2017 at 1:04 PM

        I mean, if your friend doesn’t like good butter tarts, then yes XD 1/3 cup raisins would suffice

        Reply
    5. Mandy says

      December 22, 2017 at 12:34 PM

      I use earth balance vegan butter. Would this work for the filling?

      Reply
      • Lisa Le says

        December 23, 2017 at 11:19 PM

        Yep!

        Reply
    6. Vaidehi says

      October 14, 2018 at 9:57 PM

      Hey Lisa! I was just wondering how many butter tarts this recipe makes?

      Reply
      • Lisa Le says

        November 6, 2018 at 5:25 PM

        Hi Vaidehi!
        The layout of my recipe cards can be a little random, but it’s at the top of the recipe. 16 tarts :)

        Reply
    7. Lisa says

      November 27, 2018 at 1:48 PM

      Lolz you are exactly right about those raisins. Haha I’ve never laughed so hard at a food blog before. Hidden jerks lurking at the bottom of butter tarts. That’s a perfect cartoon sketch.. omg. Keep doing what your doing Lisa!

      Reply

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