Butter Tart Recipe

Humble Pie Bakery Butter Tarts

These butter tarts are the melt-in-your-mouth "runny" kind of butter tart that you gladly go out of your way to get. Word has it that the Humble Pie Bakery in Baysville is no more, but the tarts live on in memory the way good food always does.

Use a nonstick muffin tin for ease of removal, otherwise butter the tins. Freezing butter tarts for 5 minutes after cooling makes removal from the tins easier.

For this butter tarts recipe you will need:

For the pastry ...

1 1/4 cup vegetable shortening

1/4 cup unsalted butter

4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cold water

For the butter tart filling...:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups corn syrup

1/2 cup raisins


To make the tart pastry...

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cream shortening and butter together by hand or with electric mixer.

Sift in flour and salt. Mix until crumbly.

Stir in enough cold water to make a soft dough. Knead together for 30 seconds or until dough comes together.

Roll dough out between two sheets of parchment or waxed paper, until 1/8-inch thick.

Cut into 4-inch circles to fit muffin pans. Ease into muffin pans. Chill for 30 minutes.

To make the butter tart filling...

Cream together butter, sugar and salt.

Add vinegar, vanilla, eggs and corn syrup. Don't over-mix.

Chill for 30 minutes. Stir together before filling tarts.

To assemble the butter tarts...

Fill each pastry shell with 1 teaspoon (5 mL) raisins.

Spoon about 1/4 cup syrup mixture into every cup.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pans on a rack.

The tarts take approximately 2 hours to set; refrigerate to speed up the process.

With a small, sharp knife cut around tarts and ease out of tins.

This recipe for butter tarts makes 12 to 14 large butter tarts.

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