Butter Tarts – A Canadian Classic

When I got home this evening, I’d planned to make a batch of butter tarts for Christmas.  Got home, found the recipe, and started assembling ingredients… and found I was short a cup of brown sugar.  Darn!  I’ll pick up the brown sugar tomorrow, and a few other odds and ends, and make them then, but I thought I’d share the recipe tonight, for anyone wanting to do a bit of baking.  I’ll post pictures and people’s reactions after Christmas.

Butter tarts are fairly common at Christmas here in Canada, and they are considered to be of completely Canadian origin.  If you’ve never had one, you should definitely try one – they are rich and very sweet, but mmmmm….. so good!

They typically have a sweet, sticky filling made with butter and brown sugar, with raisins or nuts in them.  Recipes vary, some call for golden syrup or maple syrup instead of or in addition to the brown sugar, but one thing is for certain – there is no such thing as a bad butter tart!

The recipe I’m sharing today is from the 1945 edition of the Purity Cook Book.  It’s a pretty traditional recipe.  This edition of the book had been “re-written and rearranged by Mrs. Kathleen M. Watson, a graduate in Home Economics of the University of Manitoba and now a member of the teaching staff of that institution and a housewife as well.  In spite of numerous difficulties caused by food rationing and shortages, she has personally tested and carefully selected all the recipes.”

Below is the butter tart recipe she personally thought was best:

And since it’s so close to Christmas, here is a recipe for Christmas Cookies:

Icebox cookies are handy to keep in the freezer around the holidays for unexpected guests!

To all my readers, I hope you have a wonderful holiday, no matter what you celebrate.  Warmest wishes to all of you.

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