Award-Winning Butter Tarts Recipe - Food.com (2024)

FAQs

Why are my butter tarts so runny? ›

Butter tarts that are runny may be underbaked or may not contain enough egg. Eggs help thicken and stabilize butter tart filling while it bakes, which is why I've included two whole eggs in my recipe to ensure the filling is thick and fully set once baked.

Purists say true butter tarts should not contain raisins or nuts. For Currie and March of Wasaga Beach, Ont., they have to have raisins. Some like runny fillings, some firm. Some like thick pastry shells while others like thin so the filling stars.

-- If tarts are too runny for your taste, add an extra egg or two in the next batch to thicken the filling.

Chilling your wrapped disk of pastry for 30 minutes before rolling it out is key to keeping it shrink-free.

Sucrose naturally wants to crystalize, which is how granulated sugar is made from simple sugars like fructose and glucose. To reduce the amount of crystallization in the butter tart filling when baking, try adding some acidity (i.e. lemon juice or 1 spoon of corn syrup).

The first golden rule of making pastry; keep the ingredients, the bowl and the hands as cool as possible. Sieve the flour to add extra air and lightness to the pastry.

Plain flours are best for pastry because their gluten strands are relaxed while the stronger gluten in bread flours can cause pastry to shrink back. Warm pastry cooked in an oven that was not pre-heated can collapse as its water evaporates before the pastry cooks and hardens.

With docking, the holes allow steam to escape, so the crust should stay flat against the baking dish when it isn't held down by pie weights or a filling. Otherwise the crust can puff up, not only impacting appearance but also leaving you with less space for whatever filling you have planned.

Get this item with your grocery order. Our Butter Tart mix strikes all the right notes of sticky and buttery sweetness while remaining convenient to prepare. With no artificial flavours or colours, simply add water and butter to the mix, cook and stir on your stove top for 10 minutes.

What is butter tart filling made of? ›

These buttery mini pies, typically baked in a muffin tin, have a flaky crust filled with a gooey mixture of butter, sugar, syrup, egg, and sometimes raisins or nuts. They bear some resemblance to the American pecan pie and British treacle tart, but their uniquely rich flavor sets them apart.

The History Of The Butter Tart

' Butter tarts were common in Canadian pioneer cooking. The earliest published recipe for a butter tart is from Barrie, Ontario dating back to 1900 in the Women's Auxiliary of the Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook. Another early published recipe was found in a 1915 pie cookbook.

If the bottom crust doesn't set before the filling soaks in, it's going to be gummy. A metal pie pan placed on a preheated surface will set the bottom crust quickest; once cooked, the liquids from the filling above won't soak in, and as a result: no soggy bottom.

Let them cool in the pan. Be sure to loosen the tarts from the pan by running a knife around the tart as soon as they come out of the oven. This ensures that they do not stick to the pan and break when you try to remove them later.

Next time you make butter tarts, mix the filling by hand, as overmixing incorporates air into the eggs, which causes the filling to rise and overflow, and then collapse when removed from the oven.

If the filling is runny and flowing out of the tart when you cut into it, then it is likely that the curd was not cooked for quite long enough. You need to be patient when cooking citrus curds as if you heat the mixture too quickly then it can curdle and become lumpy. You need to keep a low heat and stir constatntly.

That's the water evaporating.

You can make your own fruit filling by using homemade or store-bought jam and thickening it up a bit by simmering it with some cornstarch mixed with water (about a tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with a teaspoon or so of cold water to make a paste, then stir into ½ to ¾ cup of jam).

Too much butter in your baked goods would give them different texture (flat, greasy..).