A Canadian Tradition {Butter Tarts}

I finally attempted making butter tarts for the first time from scratch. I may have not picked the best time for baking as it was a relatively hot day in the middle of July. Plus I was kind of mean to the hubby because he was away and was not able to taste them until he returned home the following day from his biking weekend with the guys. I may have tortured him a bit by posting this yummy picture on Facebook when I was done photography these delicious tarts ...

All I have to say is it would not be fair if only he had fun that weekend. I figured I was allowed to have a bit of fun myself. Which for me meant baking something yummy. Don't you think that is only fair?

 

I was really happy with how my first attempt turned out with a couple exceptions. My filling had too many raisins and my tarts turned out a wee bit too small because I did not have a larger circle circumference to cut out my pastry. My pastry however, turned out AMAZING. I always have issues with pastry but NOT this time.

 

You are probably asking yourself why the heck did she want to make butter tarts in the middle of the summer? The desire to make these tarts all resulted from two things - first my father-in-law kept mentioning butter tarts when he came over (I can't remember why they kept coming up in conversation but for some reason for three weeks in a row, butter tarts were always mentioned when my in-laws came over to visit) and thus I had butter tarts on the mind. Then in the June issue of Canadian Living they had a mouth watering photo of Maple Butter Tarts on the cover and the recipe was included in the issue. The picture looked so good and from the second I received it in the mail I wanted to make them. A couple days after I received the issue my mother-in-law  borrowed it to give them a try and shared some with us. I found the Maple Butter Tarts were a wee bit to sweet with the Maple syrup, so I used a different recipe for the filling. The recipe I used however, called for too many raisins and made too much filling so I was not very happy with it. I will have to work on finding something else.
 

 

 

Before I forget I must mention that I had my own personal photographer photographing me as I made these delicious butter tarts.  This is not a common occurrence but it sure did speed things up and she did a fantastic job -- it was my awesome sister (aka Tia)!

 

If you are interested in making the Maple Butter Tarts that were included in the June 2013 issue of the Canadian Living magazine it can be found HERE.

To prepare the pastry, whisk flour with salt in a bowl. Cut in butter and lard until in fine crumbs with a few larger pieces. Drizzle water and sour cream mixture over flour mixture, add more water if necessary to form ragged dough. Press into disc; wrap and refrigerate until chilled (about 30 minutes).

On lightly floured surface, roll out pastry. Using 10 cm round cutter, cut out 12 circles. Fit into 12 muffin cups.

The shells ready for the filling.

Ingredients for the filling.

Whisk together brown sugar, maple syrup, butter, eggs, vinegar and salt. Add raisins to pastry shells. Pour filling into each shell.

Shells filled and ready to go into the oven.

Bake in 350 ⁰C oven until filling is set and pastry is golden, 20 to 25 minutes.  Let cool in pan for 20 minutes. Transfer to rack; let cool.

 

The butter tarts looking oh so yummy. At this point I could not stop snapping photos ...

 

I received a wonderful comment from my Hubby when he finally was able to have one. He informed me that my pastry was perfect -- the thickness, texture and taste!

Do you have a go to butter tart recipe? If so, leave a comment I'd love to hear what it is!