I have always had a fondness for butter tarts. My mother would keep them in the freezer but that didn’t stop my older brother and me from sneaking them and eating them — cold and crunchy.
While I tend not to eat dessert when I am dining out, I make an exception when there are butter tarts on the menu. They are one of my weaknesses (along with lemon pie, carrot cake and crème brûlée), although I actually had the best butter tart ever at the home of friends. Their young daughter had made the most delightful butter tarts, a combination of syrupy sweetness and flaky crust.
The butter tart is a made-in-Canada success story. The first published recipe can be found in the cookbook of the Women’s Auxiliary for the Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie, Ontario in 1900. The tarts share some similarity to other desserts such as Quebec’s sugar pie attributed to the King’s Daughters or (filles du roi, young girls imported from France to become brides in the 1600s), shoofly pie (made with molasses which came to Canada with the Pennsylvania Dutch Mennonite Community) and pecan pie from the southern United States.
In Ontario they take their butter tarts very seriously. You can find your favourite on the Butter Tart Trail in Wellington North, the Kawartha Northumberland Butter Tart Tour or at Midland’s Butter Tart Festival.
The basic butter tart ingredients are butter, sugar, flour and eggs. Some versions contain raisins, walnuts or pecans but the purists argue against any additions to the sugary filling.
As much as I like them, I must confess that I have never made butter tarts. Making pastry for tarts is too time-consuming for my impatient nature. I’ve joked with my husband that perhaps I should call myself The Lazy Baker — I like to bake but I stick to quick and easy recipes. My answer to butter tarts is the super simple butter tart squares which can be made in a fraction of the time.
The lazy baker’s butter tart squares
The butter tart is a made-in-Canada success story.
Ingredients
½ cup (125 mL) butter
2 Tbsp. (30 mL) icing sugar
1 ¼ cups (300 mL) all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups (375 mL) brown sugar
¼ cup (60 mL) butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 Tbsp. (15 mL) white vinegar
1 tsp. (5 mL) vanilla extract
½ cup (125 mL) raisins
Method
- Preheat oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Grease and line an 8X8” square cake pan with parchment paper.
- To make the base, in a medium-sized bowl, cream together ½ cup butter and icing sugar. Blend in the flour. Pat base mixture into the prepared cake pan. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes.
- To make the filling, in a large bowl combine brown sugar, melted butter, beaten eggs, vinegar and vanilla. Evenly distribute raisins over base. Pour filling over base. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until set.
- Helen Lammers-Helps