Canadian Butter Tarts

Knee update! Count your lucky stars, I know that you have all been waiting with bated breath. I finally sucked it up and went to a doctor on Monday after having my knee be swollen for over a week. I’ve been told I tore or punctured or somehow injured a nerve under my kneecap. My doctor confirmed this by sticking his fingers as far into my knee as humanly possible and watching tears well up in my eyes, which was not because I was crying but because he was poking and prodding said broken nerve. I felt like I was one of those people saying, “I’m NOT crying, I just have something in my eye!” while my doctor went, “Of course you do. Of course you do.” All of this was done in front of his student, who took my patient history for what seemed like h o u r s. After asking me every question under the sun, he read the whole thing back to me, then went back in to make edits. Students, am I right? Anyway, I’ve got some physical therapy to do now, but they said that it may only take four or five visits, which is great because I hate going to appointments, especially doctor’s appointments. They take too long and I never feel like I am getting as much out of it as I am supposed to. I spent an hour on the phone the other day between the office and my insurance company trying to figure out exactly what I would owe for physical therapy. It was like pulling teeth, which is so unfair. I just don’t want to get stuck with a huge bill for the privilege of having someone tell me how to bend my knee properly for an hour. Hopefully my doctor was right in that I only need to go a few more times.

My grandparents.

Anyway, enough with my complaints, as I have more where that came from. I want to share these butter tarts with you. This recipe was featured on Food52′s Heirloom Recipe Series earlier this week, but I wanted to post about it on my blog, too, because not only is it a fantastic dessert, but it’s a beloved family recipe. We don’t have a lot of those – I didn’t grow up surrounded by extended family, so our holidays were smaller than a lot of people that I know. I preferred that for a lot of reasons, most important of which being that there were more leftovers for me. However, that also meant that we didn’t have a lot of traditional family recipes that got passed around and shared, other than my mom’s sausage and chestnut stuffing which I still make every year for Thanksgiving. That isn’t to say that I have many recipes I make over and over again, either – I get bored with the same thing and like to try something new all of the time. Kramer and I rarely eat the same thing for dinner week after week, unless it’s a busy day, in which case we have bacon and eggs. In any case, my grandmother’s butter tarts are one of the few things that everyone in my family knows about, know how to make, and absolutely adores. Every time I go to visit my grandmother, she has a big container full of these Canadian treats at the ready. When I went to visit her last month, she of course pulled them out after dinner, and even though I was stuffed, I had to have just one. My grandmother is very grandmotherly, I guess you could say. She always wants to feed you, offers you anything that she has, and I’ve never seen her be judgmental or finicky. My grandmother is incredibly easy going and has a great sense of humor. Even after having a number of surgeries, she still cracks jokes and does a lot of cooking, which I know isn’t always easy, but she loves it, just like me. I was so happy that we got the chance to go up to visit her, and I hope that we have the time to go up and see her in Canada again, soon!

That’s the stuff.

If you aren’t familiar with butter tarts, allow me to fill you in. They are sort of similar to pecan pie, although they are always made in muffin pans in order to get a miniature, handheld tart, and they are much richer. It’s important to make a nice, thin crust, as you don’t want to be overwhelmed by it in such small amounts, so I like to use a combination of shortening and butter. The butter adds the nice, flaky quality you look for in a crust, like the shortening allows you to roll the dough out just a little bit thinner than an all-butter crust. The filling is simple, and sort of old fashioned, which you should embrace. You’ve got brown sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, and of course, plenty of butter. You can add raisins in, like I did, although I’m told that there is a great Canadian divide over that aspect of these treats. You can substitute currants or pecans or walnuts…whatever makes you happy. Or, you can leave it just as it is. I also sprinkled a little sea salt on top, as I feel something this rich and sweet is crying out for some salt to cut through it all, but that is optional, too. The best part about butter tarts is that they are almost meant to be frozen so that you always have a little something in the freezer to share with friends or family, just like my grandmother. Honestly, I prefer them frozen. The caramel seems thicker, chewier and more delicious after thawing out for just five minutes or so, trust me.

My grandmother as a child.

My grandmother with me as a baby.

First thing’s first: you have to make your crust. I used my food processor this time out of laziness, but I honestly think that a pair of clean hands work best.

After your dough has chilled for at least 3 hours and you’re ready to bake, whisk together your butter tart filling.

Roll out the dough and cut out circles that are almost twice as large as your muffin cups – this will ensure that there is enough crust to hold the filling in.

And really butter those muffin tins. I mean really.

Then fold the crust into tins.

Drop a few raisins or currants in the shells (or nuts…or nothing – chef’s choice).

Then fill with your caramel! Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden and set.

Allow to cool before removing from the pan.