Monday, February 5, 2007

BUTTER TARTS!

  • Butter Tarts
One of my favorite sweets is butter tarts. I just made a batch of them tonight, and this will make my husband very happy. He loves butter tarts too. However, he and I have a differing opinion on what "makes" a butter tart. For Wayne, it's the raisins. For me, it's the buttery toffee filling that encompasses the raisins. I actually don't like raisins, except I will eat them in butter tarts.

I like to alter recipes every now and then, and my butter tart recipe is no exception. Instead of raisins, I like to use chocolate chips. Imagine combining the rich flavor of chocolate together with the buttery toffee flavor of the butter tart filling. Forget the raisins! I like my alternate choice much better. Of course, I am a chocoholic, and when appropriate, I'll add chocolate to almost anything!

In case you're interested, here's my butter tart filling recipe. But first, a confession---I use pre-made tart shells. I'm not a good pastry chef, and it's a lot less work to buy the pre-made tart shells. I get mine at Costco, and they're great!

BUTTER TARTS
24 unbaked tart shells
Butter tart Filling:
1/3 C. butter (not margarine)
1/2 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. corn syrup
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 C. raisins (or, enough chocolate chips so that there are approximately 5 - 6 chips in each tart)
Method: Melt butter and add remaining ingredients. Mix well and spoon into unbaked tart shells. Bake at 350 'F for approximately 18 minutes. Makes 24 tarts.
**Hint: Instead of mixing the raisins/chocolate chips into the other ingredients, I sprinkle them into each tart shell after I spoon in the filling. I find that the raisins/chocolate chips are more evenly spaced if I do it this way.

5 comments:

Susannah said...

HA! Chocolate chips... now why didn't I think of that??? I'm going to try your recipe. (I never liked the raisins very much either.) I always use pre-baked shells too.

A confession to make... Although I now live south of the 49th parallel, I do miss my Canadian roots. And buttertarts are definitely one of the things I miss. They just don't eat them down here in the ol' US of A very much... and I wonder, why not?

Thanks for your great post! (((Hugs)))

Kim said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kim said...

Sorry about that I accidently deleted my comment. I found a spelling mistake and tried to edit my post :)
...anyway your butter tart picture is making me hungry. I absolutely love butter tarts, but I'm the only one in my family who does so saddly I don't ever make them. Your cinnamon buns looked awsome too, could I get that recipe?

Kimmy said...

Kim, I'll e-mail the cinnamon bun recipe to you. You should get it sometime today.

Michelle said...

I usually add chopped pecans in place of the raisins. I can't stand raisins. If I think of it, I will try to remember to bring you a copy of our turtle tarts recipe...buttery,caramel filling with a dollop of chocolate on top and pecans hidden in the bottom! Mmmmm!