Best Canadian Butter Tarts – Doreen McComb’s Recipe

Update: quite a number of folks have arrived at these pages searching for a butter tart recipe since I originally posted it in October 2007. So I’m re-posting and opening comments to get your feedback. Enjoy!

This is my Mom’s butter tart recipe, although she makes her own incredible pie pastry and I take the short-cut of ready-to-bake pie crust from the supermarket.

These are also known as Taffy Tarts. Some of us like raisins and or chopped nuts in our butter tarts, some of us don’t – try both ways. Runny, sticky, sweet, delicious. Makes 12-15 tarts. See the “Next Best Canadian Butter Tarts” posting for a pastry recipe if you don’t have your own.

1 cup raisins
2 T butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg, well beaten
1/4 cup corn syrup (Karo’s is usually available in the USA)
1 pkg ready-to-bake pie crust

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. In a heat-proof bowl, pour boiling water over raisins to plump them up, then drain well.
3. Add remaining ingredients and stir mixture well.
4. Gently unroll refrigerated pie crust pastry per box directions; using a 3″ round cookie cutter (or the rim of a large drinking glass), cut out pastry disks. Gently press scraps together and roll to flatten and cut remaining disks.
5. Line regular muffin cups with pastry and spoon in about 1 T filling, pastry should be no more than two-thirds full. Warning: do not overfill, these will boil over and make it difficult to loosen the tart from the pan.
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes until pastry begins to look golden. Cool in pans, loosen and remove to wire racks.