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Cinnamon Raisin Butter Tarts Recipe
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Cinnamon Raisin Butter Tarts are a delicious and indulgent treat that are perfect for satisfying your sweet tooth. These tarts are a decadent flaky pastry crust nestling a gooey mixture of butter, sugar, and cinnamon, and studded with plump, juicy California raisins.
The combination of the rich, buttery filling and the sweet, spicy cinnamon is truly heavenly and the addition of the raisins adds a lovely texture and flavor to the tarts. Whether you’re a fan of cinnamon and raisins or just love a good butter tart, this recipe is sure to become a new favorite.
You should be baking – and cooking – with raisins!
In addition to being truly delicious, raisins are one of many commodities in season year round in California. This is because they are safely dried by California growers. When kept in the pantry, raisins are at peak freshness for up to six months. Storing them in your fridge extends their lifespan to up to one year. That means you can enjoy California raisins all year long. In addition to being the sweet touch in standards like bread pudding or oatmeal raisin cookies, raisins also add taste and texture to savory dishes, like Pasta Foriana, Spaghetti allo Scammaro, Marcella Hazan’s late night pasta and Jaíne Mackievicz’s Arroz de Festa. Economical and tasty California raisins also add stable moisture to baked goods like bread. They also act as a natural preservative and flavor boost in products you might not suspect, like A1 Steak Sauce.
About these Butter Tarts:
In our recipe for Butter Tarts, raisins give sweetness, depth of flavor and a pleasing chewy texture too. Classic Canadian Butter Tarts often call for golden raisins or use more nuts than raisins, but our nut-free Butter Tarts truly celebrate the dried fruit and its frequent partner-spice, cinnamon.
The result is a caramelly, buttery, gooey filling full of warm spice and flavor.
Here’s what you need to make Cinnamon Raisin Butter Tarts:
- California raisins
- all-purpose flour
- sugar
- salted butter look for the Real California Milk seal!
- light brown sugar
- light corn syrup
- egg
- vanilla extract
- ground cinnamon
- salt
- water
Now let’s get baking! These delicious Butter Tarts are sure to become a favorite dessert on your table.
Cinnamon Raisin Butter Tarts
Equipment
- 1 food processor
- 1 muffin pan
Ingredients
For the pastry dough:
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch salt
- ¾ cup very cold salted butter cubed
- 5-6 tablespoons very cold ice water
For the cinnamon raisin filling:
- ¾ cup California raisins
- ¼ cup melted salted butter
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup light corn syrup
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
Make the pastry dough:
- Combine the all-purpose flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the ‘S’ blade. Pulse 5 times to blend.
- Add the cubed cold butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
- Slowly add the ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing in between each addition, until the dough comes together. Form the dough into a flat disc and wrap in plastic wrap.
- Chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Spray a standard muffin pan with baking spray and then flour each well until evenly covered. Set aside.
- After chilling, roll the dough out with a lightly floured rolling pin on a floured surface until 1/8-inch thick.
- Use a square-shaped cookie cutter that is approximately 4×4-inches to cut out 12 squares. Alternatively, you can use a knife and a ruler for this.
- You will have some dough left over. It can be made into decorative pieces for the tops of the tarts or can be refrigerated or frozen for use at a later time.
- Place a square of dough down into each prepared well. Once all of the wells are filled refrigerate the pan for 30 minutes.
Make the cinnamon raisin filling:
- Preheat the oven to 400F (205C).
- In a small bowl, cover the raisins with boiling water and soak for 10 minutes.
- Drain the raisins. Then combine them with the melted butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, egg, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Stir well.
- Divide this mixture by the tablespoon-full between the 12 chilled tart shells.
- Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350F (180C) and bake an additional 10-15 minutes until the filling has bubbled up similar to the filling of a pecan pie, and the pastry has lightly browned.
- Cool in the pan.
Notes
Nutrition
Love this recipe for Butter Tarts without nuts? Try these too:
Orange Blossom Raisin Tarts
These delicious Orange Blossom Raisin Tarts are full of flavor from sweet California raisins, sunflower seeds and orange blossom honey.
Easy Carrot Raisin Snack Cake
California raisins stud his Carrot Snack Cake with Cream Cheese icing, making it a perfect quick and easy treat for any time of the day.
Apple Dumplings
Our apple dumplings are filled with Granny Smith apples + date-caramel & raisins, nestled in flaky pie crusts, then baked to a golden finish.
Easy No-Bake Chewy Granola Bars
These tasty Easy No-Bake Chewy Granola Bars are full of goodness and come together simply to make a breakfast or snack everyone can enjoy.
Homemade It’s It – The Best Ice Cream Sandwich with Cookies
This recipe is a copycat of the famous “IT’S-IT” ice cream sandwich AND is gluten-free too! If you live anywhere outside the state of California, you might have no idea what “IT’S-ITs” are, so here you go: an ice cream sandwich comprised of a scoop of vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two oatmeal cookies dunked in dark chocolate. Yum.
And a savory option too: Simple Pasta Dinner with Walnuts, Raisins and Kale
This simple pasta dinner recipe – a California riff on Pasta Foriana – is pantry and budget friendly, a meatless option that doesn’t miss on flavor and is truly delicious.
