Tart shells are great for savoury and sweet fillings. They can be made large or small. Many of our family gatherings with either my husbands side of the family or my side of the family include caramel tarts. Usually small, individual tart shells but ocassionaly a large caramel tart. With this being one my husbands favourite desserts, I had to learn how to make gluten free tart shells.
Rudolph Gluten Free Caramel Tarts 
gluten free tart shells
Originally I used my gluten free and dairy free shortbread recipe and made it into tart shells. However this particular recipe had been inspired by a gluten free apple crumb pie recipe.
My husband also likes an orange tart which we make in a large shell. Lemon butter in tart shells would be one of my favourites. Growing up my mother also made a yummy savoury filling for vol-au-vents. Serving these in gluten free tart shells is a great way to make them gluten free. All of these recipes feature in the new eBook edition of Mothers’ and Others’.
These tart shells can also be made dairy free by simply using a dairy free margarine or coconut oil instead of butter. If you’re making small tart shells a suggestion I read and which works well is to grease the bottom of another tart shell tray. Place this over the top of the tray with the pastry in it, while you bake the shells. This stops the shells from rising and is easier than adding weights or rice to weigh the pastry down.
Here’s the recipe for the gluten free tart shells:
Gluten Free Tart Shells
Equipment
- oven, food processor (optional)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup tapioca flour or cornflour
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour
- 1/4 cup almond meal
- pinch salt
- 2 Tbsp coconut sugar (or sugar of choice) omit for savoury tart shells
- 71 g butter
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Combine dry ingredients
- Mix in butter and egg until ingredients combine to form a dough. Can use a food processor for this step.
- Wrap dough and refrigerate for 1 hour
- Remove chilled dough from fridge. Roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper. If making large shell roll to fit dish. Remove top layer of paper and turnover pie dish, remove paper. Trim dough to fit the pie dish. If making individual tart shells cut with round cutter and fit into tart shell trays. Reroll dough to cut more small tarts until dough all used.
- Cover tart shell with baking paper and weigh down with rice or pastry weights. For small tart shells, grease the bottom of another tart shell tray and place over the top of the one with the pastry in it. Blind bake large tart shell for 10-15 min. Bake individual tart shells for 10 mins. Remove from trays and allow to cool.
Notes
Orange filling in gluten free tart shell 
Highland Curd in gluten free tart shell 
Savoury filling in gluten free tart shells
Make a large sweet tart shell to use with an Orange Tart Filling. Small, sweet tart shells are great with Highland Curd (Lemon Butter with a twist). Or use small savoury tart shells to make a gluten free version of Savoury Filling for Vol-au-vents. All of these recipes, along with the tart shell recipe are in my Mothers’ & Others’ recipe eBook which is available now.
What filling do you like to have in tart shells?