Is there anything more Canadian than a Butter Tart?

No you won’t be getting butter tarts for breakfast, but you might just happen to be here on a day when I am making them for some big occaision.  These tarts are rich and decadent and I only make them for special people for special occaisions.  So if you are here as a B&B guest and I happen to be making these little beauties, you might be treated to a taste.

These butter tarts are moist but not runny.  So if you like a runny tart these are not for you.  What makes these over the top Canadian is the maple syrup….

Maple Butter Tarts

*makes 12 tarts

Make your favourite pastry.  I use Tenderflake lard and make the recipe on the box.  If it worked for my mother and grandmother it works for me and it does make very nice, easy to handle pastry.

For the Filling:

1 cup brown sugar lightly packed

1 large egg

1/4 cup melted butter that has been allowed to cool to room temperature

1 tsp. of good vanilla extract

2 tbsp. maple syrup

1/2 tbsp. or so of water

thompson raisins, walnuts, pecans, coconut…what ever your preference.

Preheat oven to 200°

Line your muffin tins with pastry.  I use a glass or any vessel that is slightly bigger than the muffin cup, cut the circles and fit into the muffin cups so the pastry is a little taller than the rim of the muffin cup, this allows you to fill your tarts a little fuller and allows for expansion of the filling while baking, so your tarts do not run over.

Add about 6 plump moist thompson raisins to each pastry lined cup.  Or if you prefer roughly chop walnuts or pecans and add approximately 1 tsp. of chopped nuts to each.  Coconut also works great, about 1 tsp per tart.

In a bowl with a pouring lip, beat your egg with a whisk.  Add brown sugar and melted butter and whisk well.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  The amount of water you  add will depend on how thick your maple syrup is and how packed your brown sugar was.  The filling needs to be of a consistency that you can pour.  Fill your tarts by pouring carefully a small amount of filling into each, being careful to not slop on the edges, fill about 2/3 full.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200° for 15 minutes, then increase your oven temperature to 350° and continue to bake for another 18-20 minutes, or until your pastry is light golden brown and the filling has puffed up.  Remove from oven and remove tarts from pan after cooling for 5 minutes.  Allow tarts to fully cool on racks before storing in an airtight container.

#Baking #CountryBampB #Recipes #YourstoDiscover