Maple Butter Tarts
A humble favorite and a modest dessert loved by Canadians. You know you've crossed the border when you can find butter tarts at any convenience store. If you've never had one, think of a baby pecan pie with a much “runnier” filling and without the pecans. Just the pastry and custard-y filling in all its glory.
Butter tart is highly regarded in Canadian cuisine and considered one of Canada’s quintessential treats. The sweet tart consists of a filling of butter, sugar, syrup, and eggs, baked in a flaky pastry shell until the filling is semi-solid with a crunchy top. Often raisins, walnuts or pecans are added to the traditional butter tart, although the acceptability of such additions is a matter of national debate. No seriously, as an iconic Canadian food and one of the most popular desserts in the country, the raisin-or-no-raisin question can provoke polarizing debate. If you look at the ingredients, it’s really what you have in your pantry when you have nothing else. At its most basic, the butter tart is a pastry filled with brown sugar, butter and egg. Oven alchemy transforms those simple ingredients into something spectacular.
History
Butter tarts were common in pioneer Canadian cooking, and they remain a characteristic pastry of Canada, considered a recipe of genuinely Canadian origin. It is primarily eaten in and associated with the English-speaking provinces of Canada. The earliest published Canadian recipe is written by Margaret Mcleod from Barrie, Ontario, dating back to 1900 and can be found in The Women's Auxiliary of the Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook. Another early publication of a butter tart recipe was found in a 1915 pie cookbook. There are as many theories about the origins of the tart as there are variations. Inventive cooks have gone further with chocolate chips, coconut, nuts and other add-ins.
The French tarte au sucre, the Scottish border tart, the American pecan pie, Bakewell tarts and the Quebec sugar pie — each have been named a predecessor to the Canadian tart. But up on closed observance, these pies or tarts are their very own particular desserts, very similar to each other, but they’re not all the same. The very first butter tart recipe may never be found, because until recently cookbooks were not seen as items worth preserving. As always, recipes like these were developed by housewives and preserving them was not deemed important.
Canadian Heritage
Butter tarts are an integral part of Canadian cuisine and often viewed as a source of cultural pride in many communities across Eastern Canada, specifically Ontario. For us Canadians, no other dessert is as sacred as homemade butter tarts – flaky crust with gooey egg-y custard like filling. Modern Canadian culinary culture celebrates seasonality, native ingredients and provincial pride. For example, poutine from Quebec, smoked salmon from British Columbia, lobster roll from the Maritimes - all three national favorites I showcased earlier. But butter tarts buck the norm; they are a humble treat, made with ordinary ingredients yet so spectacularly delicious.
In 2018, New York Times published an article, "Butter Tarts, Canada's Humble Favorite, Have Much to Love", which went viral, with non-Canadians discovering butter tarts for the first time. This sparked a series of articles, videos, and other media pertaining to the butter tarts, like “The Passions of the Butter Tart” in which readers shared family heirloom recipes handwritten by their grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Nowadays, Butter tart recipes, and variations like butter tart ice cream, regularly appear in magazines like Canadian Living. Why, then, have the tarts never made significant waves south of the border? It could be that Canadians don’t want to let the world or just their louder neighbors in on their sweetest secret.
Well then, it’s time I reveal my maple butter tart recipe. The addition of maple syrup is delightful and oh, so Canadian. While many butter tart purists prefer their baked treats without embellishments, roasted pecans or walnuts and raisins are great additions. In our house, we have a Zero Raisin Policy because the other half is a confirmed raisin hater but that boy loves pecan, so it’s a no-brainer my butter tart would have loads of roasted pecan on it. Sharing this simple yet much beloved recipe with you all today.
Recipe: Butter Tarts
Serves: 6
Pâté Sucrée: French Sweet Crust Pastry
Flour - 1 ½ cups
Sugar - ¼ cup
Salt - ½ tsp
Nutmeg - ½ tsp
Unsalted Butter - 4 oz (frozen)
In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, sugar, salt and nutmeg through a strainer. Grate the frozen butter straight from the freezer using a cheese grater. Toss the fluffy grated butter into the flour mix using a fork or your fingers (make sure they are cold). It will turn into a crumb like texture.
Egg Yolks - 1
Pure Vanilla Extract - ½ tsp
Ice Water - ¼ cup
Whip the egg yolks and vanilla extract, then add it to the flour mixture. Continue blending until the egg yolks are evenly incorporated and the mixture resembles a fine meal. Stir in the ice water with a fork, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the mixture is just moistened enough to gather and mold into a smooth ball.
Note: For the sake of sharing the recipe with everyone, I didn’t use my stand mixer or food processor this time. If you have either or, go ahead and use them to cut time.
Divide the dough in half and flatten each portion into a smooth disc. Wrap with plastic, and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, or overnight if you prefer. The dough may also be frozen for up to 2 months.
Remove one of the chilled dough discs from the fridge, and allow to rest at room temperature for 15 to 30 minutes. Remove the plastic wrap and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to fit in the tart pans. Lift and turn the dough as you work, keeping the work surface dusted with flour to prevent sticking.
Traditionally, butter tarts shells are free form and baked individually in standard muffin pans. I used 4 inch mini tart/quiche pans instead just because I like the shape of mini tartlets. Using a 5-6 inch round cutter, cut out 6 circles. Place the dough circles into each tart tins, pressing with your fingers to fit into the tart tin wells. Trim crust with a sharp knife to make a smooth edge. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Maple Syrup Butter Tart Filling
Brown Butter - 4 oz
Cook butter in a heavy small saucepan over medium heat until it turns deep nutty brown (do not burn), stirring often, about 6 minutes. Set aside and let it cool down.
Note: Reason why we brown butter. Normally butter has fat, water and milk fat solids. Browning it will evaporate the water and the butter fat will rise in temperature and brown the milk fat solids, which in simple term means lots and lots of flavor.
Maple Syrup ½ cup
Brown Sugar ½ cup
Salt - ¼ tsp
Eggs - 2
Pure Vanilla Extract - 2 tsp
Flour - 2 tbsp optional
In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs. Add brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla and salt and mix well. Add the browned butter gradually to this mix. Make sure the butter has cooled completely because we do not want the egg mix to curdle. Optional, but if you plan on using flour in the filling, whisk that in as well. Set aside.
Note: Traditionally, flour or corn starch is not used in the filling. But perhaps I have lived in the USA for so long or maybe I just like my filling to be a little more thick and less runny. Yes, yes, I like it thicc.
Assembling the Butter Tarts
Optional
Roasted Pecans or Walnuts - 1 cup
Raisins - 1 cup
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Pour about ¼ cup of the maple butter filling into each 4 inch tart shell (it should be no more than ¾ full).
Mmm butter batter in butter pastry *heavy breathing*.
If you are using the roasted pecans, walnuts or raisins, place 6 – 8 raisins (or both) into the bottom of the tart shell and/or 4-6 pieces of pecans or walnuts on top.
Place the tarts on a baking sheet and bake until the filling is set and pastry is golden, about 20 to 25 minutes. The baking time depends on your oven and the air pressure where you live, in my case it took longer, about 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to rack; let cool completely. After 20 minutes, carefully remove the tarts from the tins. You may glaze the top with some more maple syrup.
You can eat this hot, cold or room temperature. It is such a no fuss and easy to make at home treat.
