Treat Day Wednesday: Butter Tarts–a true Canadian delicacy!!!

It’s Treat Day Wednesday and decided to retry the butter tarts I made for Canada day.  So what’s a butter tart?

No it’s not a mini sugar pie or a pecan pie without the pecans.  This is a true Canadian staple and for our July 1st, full on Canadian celebration in Cary, it was a must have!

My mother has been bugging me for weeks to bring the butter tart to the masses, or at least the couple hundred who stop by here when they can spare a moment.  Butter tarts are, in a word, delicious.  Not all butter tarts are created equal.  It’s not just about the filling or just the crust, it’s about how the two work together.  Butter tarts can be runny or not, have raisins (I think this is a travesty, but that’s my opinion) or not.  Just simply a gooey goodness that everyone should at least try once.

Growing up we would go out to visit my grandmother who lived just outside Port Hope in Ontario.  About an hour from Toronto.  Without fail we would stop at Betty’s Butter Tarts!  It certainly wasn’t for her disposition, that’s for sure. Sadly she made the best tarts on the planet and she new it.  Ok, let me rephrase.  She made the best butter tart filling, her crust was crap, and she could bake them to the perfect gooeyness. It became a game, who could get in and out without pissing her off.  Betty closed up shop a few years ago and sold the business.  The person who bought them just can’t do what Betty did. 

So now the challenge presented itself…to make the perfect butter tart.

I make a decent crust.  It’s taken years to get it just so.  Don’t kid yourselves there have been a few uggers, but usually I’m bang on.  So I’ve got the crust.  Now to find the great centre.

I made this first recipe for my Canada Day celebrations!  The second I made for treat day (a truer recipe).

Crust recipe can be found here

First up: Mum’s friend’s Filling:

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 tbsp whipping cream
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup butter

1. Combine together and bring to a boil on medium heat.  Boil for 3 minutes and pour into unbaked tart shells. 
2. Bake at 375 until shells are golden brown.  Approximately 15-20mins

These are ok but not a Betty’s rival.  These taste more like Sucre Cream in a tart shell.

Next up: Taken from the Joy of Baking online but originally from the Best of Bridge!

• 1/3 cup (70 grams) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup (215 grams) light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) light cream (half-and-half) (10% butterfat)

1. Cream the butter and sugar.
2. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla extract. Stir in the cream.
3. Fill the unbaked tart shells with the filling. Bake at 375 for about 15 - 20 minutes or until the pastry has nicely browned and the filling is set.
4. Remove and cool completely.

These were much better, it still needs a little tweaking but I think we have a start!

After I wrote this, I found Betty’s Butter Tart recipe. I think I’ll wait to give them a try because we have just a few butter tarts in the house and my waist doesn’t need them :)

This was taken at Fort Bragg where we went for July 4th!  Don’t you love the girl’s patriotic outfits, got them the day before at the OshKosh outlet and I had to share :)

Thanks for looking!

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