best canadian butter tarts

My fab aunt MJ gave me this recipe a few years ago and it has become my go-to recipe for butter tarts. If you have never had a butter tart, you are clearly NOT Canadian. In all seriousness there are very few truly Canadian recipes and this is one of them. Some people compare them to pecan pie, and while I see the similarity these are SO MUCH BETTER! I like them with raisins...E prefers pecans or walnuts (I knew he was weird when I married him) some peeps I know even put crazy things like coconut or chocolate chips.

OK enough blather and on to the recipe!

Start by making a batch of pie dough from your fave recipe. You need two muffin pans of 12 tarts each for this recipe (or you can buy pre-made frozen tart shells but they are really not as good). I really like parenthesis. Sorry.

1 c raisins (or pecans, walnuts, whatever!)
1/2 c butter
1 c brown sugar, packed
1 c light corn syrup
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla

Line tart pans with pastry and preheat oven to 450 degrees FAHRENHEIT.

In a heavy saucepan combine sugar, butter, raisins, corn syrup and salt. Set over low heat until butter is melted and mixture is warm, stirring to dissolve sugar.

Do not let mixture get hot...if it does remove from heat and let cool slightly before adding eggs and vanilla and stirring to combine.

Spoon filling into pastry lined tart shells, filling each 1/2 to 2/3 full. (I would lean more toward 1/2 and see how much filling you have left. These can be a nightmare to get out of the pan if the filling overflows. TRUST ME!)

Bake in 450* oven on middle rack for 10 minutes. Lower heat to 350* and bake 5 minutes more or until pastry is golden. Let cool completely before removing from pan.

Seriously, these are SO popular in Canada....in college I worked for a semester at a bakery that only made these tarts....tarts all day long for months and months and months. It was really hard to eat a tart for awhile after that but now that I've had some space....delish again!

I used the pie crust recipe from the back of the package of crisco and it was super tender and yummy....only problem was that I filled the cups too full and they overflowed....combine that with super tender pastry and I was only able to get TWO (yes the two pictured above) out of the pan without breaking them. That did not however stop our neighbors and ourselves from finishing the dozen. We simply had to get messy and creative! They are that good. So good that E, when I told him I was posting about butter tarts, said "I'm not stupid...there is dough in the fridge...why do we not have buttertarts?!?!"