Butter Tarts

I'm back!

It's been a few days since the perogies post.  We've had a lot of visitors since then so there hasn't been time to get the next recipe on.  Well folks, the wait is finally over.  My perogy research led me to a wikipedia page that listed various "Canadian" dishes which led me to today's blog.... Butter Tarts!  I remember the days in Brandon of going to the local bakery with my Dad for coffee time and having one of these sugar filled tarts. I haven't had a butter tart in years, so upon seeing how many guests we would have over this week thought that this would be a great chance to make a nice dessert from my childhood for our guests.

The recipe is after the jump.
Surprisingly this is actually a very simple recipe.  Heading into the making process I was feeling a bit lazy and thought that I might just buy the tart dough at one of the local grocery stores.  Luckily for this blog, none could be found. So I scrounged the interweb for a good pie crust recipe and got to work.

We are about to start the recipe, so make sure you have a great playlist ready for this one.  I would suggest something fun and upbeat.  After all, we are making a sugary treat here.
 (I went with my "Canadian Playlist")


What you will need:

1 mixing bowl
1 set of measuring cups
1 fork
1 circular cookie cutter or a glass (and knife) - diameter of 9.5 cm
1 muffin tray
1 large flat surface for rolling out dough
1 rolling pin
some extra flour for the rolling process
electric mixer or a whisk

Ingredients:

Dough:

2 1/4 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter (cubed or broken into chunks)
2/3 cup cold water (I didn't end up using all of it)

Filling:

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter
2 tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
you can add nuts and raisins if you would like.  I made some with walnuts.  Pecans are also a very good option.

Preheat oven to 170° C (325° F)
Preparation time: 80-90 minutes (includes refrigeration time for dough)
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes
Serving size: 15-20 tarts depending on size

Directions:

Start by making the dough.  This can even be done a day ahead if you have some spare time. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and mix in salt and sugar (frame 1). Now take the butter (frame 2) and combine with the flour mixture.  Use your hands to break apart the butter and mix with flour until there are no chunks that are bigger than a pea (frame 3). Slowly add water to the dough, using a fork to mix, until dough starts to come together.  You may not have to add all of the water.  Form a ball with the dough, wrap it in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 60 minutes.

Now we're going to move onto the filling (it's very simple).  Cream together the eggs (frame 4), brown sugar (frame 5), butter (frame 6), vanilla and heavy cream. Your end product should look like frame 7. Mix in any nuts and raisins that you would like in the tarts.

Take the dough from the fridge and roll out the dough on a floured board until it is between 1-2 mm. Make sure the dough is thin as it will double it's thickness when in the oven. Cut out circles of dough (frame 8). Now take your muffin tray and coat it in butter so the tarts won't stick. Place the circles of dough into the muffin tin (frames 9 & 10). Fill the tarts half way with filling (frame 11) and place in oven for 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on the tarts as the filling can burn easily. Carefully take the tarts out of the muffin tray and let cool (frame 12).  The filling will be very, very hot when coming out of the oven.

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Well that is how you make butter tarts.  I hope that you enjoy them as much as we did.

Coming up in the next days will be a recipe for some very kid friendly meatballs.

Until next time enjoy the food.


- Trev