Butter tarts

Ingredients

• Flour300 g
• Butter for the pastry — cold180 g
• Iced water80 ml
• Butter120 g
• Brown sugar200 g
• Maple syrup120 ml
• Eggs2
• Vanilla1 tsp
• Vinegar1 tsp
• Raisins — optional100 g
• Salt1 pinch

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Rub the flour into the cold butter to a coarse crumb and bring the dough together with iced water.

   12 min

2. 2

   Wrap it in film and chill it half an hour, without long kneading.

   32 min

3. 3

   Roll the pastry and line muffin tins with it, taking the sides right to the top.

   15 min

4. 4

   Melt the butter and stir in the sugar, maple syrup, vinegar, vanilla and salt.

   8 min

5. 5

   Cool the mixture to lukewarm and only then whisk in the eggs; in a hot one they scramble.

   8 min

6. 6

   Divide the raisins between the cases and fill them two-thirds with the mixture, no higher.

   8 min

7. 7

   Bake at 200 °C for eighteen minutes for a runny filling, or twenty-two for a set one.

   25 min

About the dish

Runny or firm filling is the great Canadian argument. The difference is three minutes of baking: taken out early they stay liquid, left longer they set into caramel.

The tins are filled two-thirds full. The filling boils and rises, and filled to the brim it overflows and welds the tart to the tin.

Raisins, nuts or neither is the second Canadian argument, no less serious. There is no canonical answer, and Ontario holds competitions for both versions.

Worth knowing

• — Lift the tarts out warm but not hot. Hot they fall apart; cold they weld to the tin with caramel.
• — The vinegar keeps the sugar from crystallising. A spoon per batch is not tasted, but without it the filling turns grainy.
• — Maple syrup can be swapped for corn syrup, but the flavour comes out plainer. Maple is what makes the tart Canadian rather than merely sweet.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

420 kcal

Protein

4 g

Fat

24 g

Carbs

48 g

More from Canada

• Poutine — Chips with cheese curds under hot gravy. The Québécois street classic.
• Tourtière — A double-crust pie of spiced pork and potato. The Québec Christmas table.
• Montreal bagels — Bagels boiled in honey water and baked in a wood oven, sweeter and thinner than New York's.