True to my heritage as a Canadian, I love butter tarts. Is there anything better? The answer simply is, no. So when I went Keto, butter tarts was something that I felt was so lacking in my life. Not anymore. Now that I have this All-Canadian Low-Carb Maple Butter Tarts recipe and I am beyond excited.
If you are not Canadian, let me fill you in: the butter tart is a quintessential Canadian dessert. It is truly one of the tastiest things to come out of the Great White North. Nothing beats the flaky pastry filled with a perfectly sticky-caramelly gooey centre.
I learned early on how to make butter tarts because too many of them have nuts in the filling. And this is where I would have the look of sadness & emit a great sigh as someone who has a serious nut allergy. We are a bilingual country, so when in Quebec, a province where you can find spectacular butter tarts, I would emit «le grand soupir», because there too, I would often find butter tarts that would be filled with nuts and off limits. And perhaps not as disappointing, yet still a let down, was when butter tarts would be filled with big juicy raisins. I’m a purist, just give me the pastry and the decadent filling and I’m good.
My family are also purists. So, it wasn’t hard to transition to a keto butter tart version that lacked raisins (perish the thought!), as we have members of the family [not mentioning any names] that are more staunchly in the anti-raisin camp than even me….and obviously we were not adding any nuts (sigh!).
All-Canadian Low-Carb Maple Butter Tarts need a good pastry as they are not blind baked ahead of time
However, if your heart so desires you can add pumpkin seeds to give these All-Canadian Low-Carb Maple Butter Tarts a little more texture with a nutty texture and flavour. If you want to be super decadent, you could add sugar-free chocolate chips. Just add the chips or seeds to the empty tart shells first, then add the filling.
This is an allowable and decadent addition in my house. Do watch for warning on some of the sugar free chocolate chips. Some of them contain warnings – sigh. Always manage the risk, when dealing with the nut allergy issue as my very smart mother says!
These All-Canadian Low-Carb Maple Butter Tarts need a good pastry as they are not blind baked ahead of time. You need a reliable dough that won’t be soggy or crumbly. That’s why I use carbalose flour in my Flaky Keto Pie Pastry Recipe. It’s a reliable pie pastry that can be forgiving for those who aren’t advanced bakers.
Carbalose Flour, if you have never heard about it, is a wheat based flour that is low-carb (amazing right?!?). So, it’s not gluten-free, for those that have that requirement, and it may not be as healthy as other flours. However, it is low enough in carbs to maintain Keto. I don’t make keto butter tarts, or even pies for that matter, that often, so this option has been great where you can have a great treat without sacrificing the whole diet.
The pastry can be a bit sticky when rolled, so I often roll between the plastic wrap the dough was wrapped in from the fridge and cut out circles for my shells using a 6” circle cutter. That seems to fit well for a medium sized muffin tin.
This All-Canadian Low-Carb Maple Butter Tarts recipe makes about 24 to 18 butter tarts made in medium sized muffin tins. If you are using tart shells, which are a bit smaller, it would make 24 or maybe more. You do want to have the pastry thick enough to hold the filling well.
Also, you’ll find a desire to fill your butter tarts a little more than 2/3 full. Don’t do that, they’ll boil over and make a mess. I can’t tell you how often I didn’t listen to myself and overfilled what could have been a perfect butter tart but instead was an almost perfect butter tart because of the goopy mess on the edges of the pastry. Don’t be like me, it’s so not worth it.
It’s important to not over beat your eggs. If you do, the butter tart can sink a little more in the middle than it should. They will sink a bit regardless. Even if they sink, they will still look and be delectable. Second, if you like a butter tarts that are less runny, you could add an additional egg.
This All-Canadian Low-Carb Maple Butter Tarts recipe won’t make your butter tarts overly runny, as this keto recipe has been adapted to prevent spilling butter tart goo all over myself as I can be prone to wear what I eat in these kinds of situations, especially when passing by the kitchen and seeing them out in the open—me and temptation you see. However, if you are a risk-taker, and prefer to super goopey butter tart, you add more of the keto or low-carb brown sugar and less syrup.
I’ll be posting my other butter tart recipe that is another original tried and true Canadian butter tart shortly. I started with this one, as it has a little less upfront work. Perfect when you are eager for butter tarts in the least amount of time possible.
Hope you love them,
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