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Canadian Butter Tarts
In thinking about Thanksgiving pies to make this year, I was inspired to ask Google, “What are some classic Canadian Thanksgiving desserts?” My browser was immediately flooded with butter tarts and I was intrigued. Canadian butter tarts look like mini pecan pies minus the pecans and plus raisins or currants…sometimes. They bake up quickly in muffin tins and in my experience, they’re also devoured quickly, ideally while still warm and a bit runny.
About that runniness — butter tarts stir up some passion among Canadians. Apparently, you can be “team runny filling” or “team solid filling” and there is also debate about including raisins, currants, or nothing in the gooey filling. Then there’s the influence of the neighbor to the south resulting in toasted pecans in some tart recipes. That’s quite delicious but I’m actually really excited to be able to serve these butter tarts at holiday dinners to a couple of family members who are allergic to nuts and never get to eat the pecan pie.
I baked several batches of butter tarts to test different flours and fillings. Usually when I test a sweet recipe, I have to push the product on my savory-focused family. “Cake and scrambled eggs for breakfast, everyone!” Not so with these butter tarts; we ate them morning, noon, and night. Our taste testing yielded a preference for whole grain crust over high extraction and refined flour crusts because the whole grain flour seemed to hold the butter better and the crust was extra tender. We nixed raisins and currants because they made the tarts too sweet, though the added texture to the goo was fun. Toasted pecans were scrumptious but not necessary. Bottom line: Plain tarts were spectacular.
We’re on “team fully-gelled bake but served warm and therefore almost-runny” but, of course, you should experiment with your own flavor and texture preferences. Keep in mind that one batch of twelve tarts doesn’t have to be uniform. You can see in the Photo Gallery after the recipe that you can fill the crust cups with various combinations of currants, raisins, and pecans before pouring in the filling.
Canadian Butter Tarts
Butter tarts are an iconic Canadian dessert that's perfect for Thanksgiving or any other holiday or special dinner. With a tender flakey crust and a gooey buttery filling, the prep work is surprisingly easy and they bake up in just 18 minutes.
Ingredients
Dough
Filling
Instructions
Photo Gallery
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Canadian Butter Tarts