The Best Classic Canadian Butter Tarts - a definite keeper recipe! (2024)

FAQs

Why are my butter tarts so runny? ›

Butter tarts that are runny may be underbaked or may not contain enough egg. Eggs help thicken and stabilize butter tart filling while it bakes, which is why I've included two whole eggs in my recipe to ensure the filling is thick and fully set once baked.

Purists say true butter tarts should not contain raisins or nuts. For Currie and March of Wasaga Beach, Ont., they have to have raisins. Some like runny fillings, some firm. Some like thick pastry shells while others like thin so the filling stars.

Butter tarts are a quintessential Canadian dessert—and, oh, how I love them! These buttery mini pies, typically baked in a muffin tin, have a flaky crust filled with a gooey mixture of butter, sugar, syrup, egg, and sometimes raisins or nuts.

To stop tarts from boiling over, line each muffin cup so that the pastry comes about 1/2″ above the tin, says Nancy Coady, owner of Betty's Pies and Tarts in Cobourg, Ont. If you use an electric mixer to combine ingredients, start on the lowest setting. Overmixing can add air to the filling, causing it to bubble.

Let them cool in the pan. Be sure to loosen the tarts from the pan by running a knife around the tart as soon as they come out of the oven. This ensures that they do not stick to the pan and break when you try to remove them later.

The History Of The Butter Tart

' Butter tarts were common in Canadian pioneer cooking. The earliest published recipe for a butter tart is from Barrie, Ontario dating back to 1900 in the Women's Auxiliary of the Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook. Another early published recipe was found in a 1915 pie cookbook.

-- To avoid "gritty" butter tarts, caramelize sugar first by blending on the stovetop with butter, syrup and vanilla. Let it cool before adding eggs to the mixture or they'll be scrambled.

They are a humble treat, made with ordinary ingredients, and spectacularly delicious. “If you look at the ingredients, it's really what you have in your pantry when you have nothing else,” said Liz Driver, the author of “Culinary Landmarks: A Bibliography of Canadian Cookbooks, 1825–1949.”

Corn syrup is a sweetener but it also adds moisture and helps keep cookies chewy. It helps them brown nicely too. If you don't mind the distinctive flavors you can substitute honey, agave, maple syrup, or molasses. You can also just add an extra couple of tablespoons of brown sugar.

Does America have butter tarts? Yes, any decent bakery will typically carry butter tarts, that quintessential Canadian pastry.

What is a butter tart slang? ›

Butter tarts are indeed a popular Canadian pastery. The phrase butter tart, as used in the song, is also slang for a woman's parts.

If the bottom crust doesn't set before the filling soaks in, it's going to be gummy. A metal pie pan placed on a preheated surface will set the bottom crust quickest; once cooked, the liquids from the filling above won't soak in, and as a result: no soggy bottom.

If you try to unmould butter tarts when they are warm, or worse, straight out of the oven, you will likely break them. Don't hurry the cooling process. Just walk away, let them cool, and then you can start to unmould.

If you stir the filling too much, the eggs will hold air. That air rises in the oven causing the filling to puff up, then sinks in the center when the tarts are removed from the oven. To make sure your filling is just the right texture, I recommend whisking by hand only until just combined.

If the filling is runny and flowing out of the tart when you cut into it, then it is likely that the curd was not cooked for quite long enough.

Commercial pectin helps thicken jam made with low-pectin fruits, like blackberry jam, or vegetable jelly recipes, like pepper jelly. It comes in powder or liquid form, but the former is the most common. Add powdered pectin to the fruit juice, chopped fruit, or strained purée before heating the jam mixture.

Too much butter in your baked goods would give them different texture (flat, greasy..).

Very soft, difficult-to-mould pastry: Either too little flour or too much water or fat was used, the pastry was not kneaded together until smooth or the pastry was still too hot and soft to roll out (to remedy this, allow to stand or knead gently for 1–2 minutes).