An American Foodie Dishes on Ontario's Butter Tart Trail

Listen in on this tasty journey along Ontario’s butter tart trails, unraveling the eternal mystery — why is the butter tart an iconically Canadian food? And who suggested a version with raisins? Butter tart blasphemy! Also covered: butter tart road tripping, butter tart contests (yes, that’s a thing) and the fierce DNA of the competitive butter tart bakers. Along the way, American expat contributor Carolyn B. Heller takes us on her quest, from Indiana’s pies to the sweets of her adopted Canadian homeland, introducing us to some key characters in Ontario’s butter tart world, from bakers to contest judges to serious (and we mean serious) butter tart eaters. Buckle up and come along. It’s a sweet ride.

My Cottage Neighbour Sharon’s Famous Mini Butter Tarts:

Your host Liz Beatty here. My favourite butter tart recipe is just this: Sinfully simple butter tart filling in a mini shortbread shell. It is insane. I can feel my fingers swelling from a full-blown sugar and gluten bloat just thinking about it.

Here it is:

Filling

½ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
½ cup 100% pure maple syrup
Lemon juice (juice of half a lemon)
Salt

1.Heat butter until melted.
2.Add brown sugar and caramelize
3.Mix remaining ingredients in a bowl
4.Slowly incorporate the mixture into the caramel using a whisk
5.Let cool

Sweet Paste

1 cup butter, room temp
½ cup sugar
2 cups flour
Pinch of Salt

1.Use a hand mixer to blend the ingredients
2.Scoop dough with a spoon for mini butter tarts or an ice cream scoop for regular size
3.Mould the dough with your hands and place in tart tin
4.Bake for 6 minutes at 350F
5.Press with ¼ cup as soon as they come out of the oven (press the dough into a tart crust shape. For the mini sized butter tarts, I used a pill bottle covered in foil)
6.Pour the caramel into the tarts, filling to top
7.Bake for 16 more minutes