Canadian Butter Tarts 5

Similar Recipes

Butter tart is true Canadiana. Butter tart did NOT descend from the American pecan pie and what you put in it has become the source of several national debates. Butter tarts supposed to taste buttery; hence the name: “BUTTER tart”? The purist approach is no nuts or raisins, because it would have to be a nut or a raisin tart, would it not? I have to confess I like mine with raisins. However, I stop there, because adding molasses, corn syrup, or even maple syrup would be a sacrilege. Americans put out far more cookbooks than Canadians do, so it is not surprising that most cookbooks insist on using corn syrup. I myself think that corn syrup is the absolute worst in a butter tart; it overpowers the delicate taste of butter and makes it sickly sweet. If your preference is runny and syrupy, well that is quite all right, but then please stop calling it “butter tart”, because it is not. One more thing, butter tarts are more attractive if made with light brown sugar. Light brown sugar melts better and gives a golden hue to the tarts. This brings me to the pastry. We can buy frozen tart shells in Canada just for our butter tarts. But if you live somewhere else or it is getting close to Christmas and you can no longer find them in the stores, it is not hard to make your own pie pastry. However, try to avoid stretching the dough. Stretching the dough will shrink the pastry during baking considerably. Then the filling spills over and you have a mess. If you follow the instructions to the letter, you will not have any problems with your butter tarts.