Butter Tarts

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated occurring together in a meaningful manner.

I was speaking with my hairdresser during my last appointment, bemoaning the fact that when my boys were young I hated when they had "ethnic" days at school and they were to bring a food item to share with the class that was related to their heritage. "There's nothing Canadian", I complained. We used to eat a lot of Shepherd's Pie, but that's really more English. "Well," said Colleen - who is from Canada - "there's always Butter Tarts."

I laughed. We grew up with butter tarts. Mom always made them for holidays and sometimes for special occasions. I have fond memories of watching her pull a pan from the oven and begging for one before she could even set it on the counter. I remember them filling my mouth with flavor and tasting the butter ... they were SO good!

"They're not Canadian!" I said with authority. "Of course they are", she replied. She challenged me to check with my friends at work and see how many of them had even heard of butter tarts. She assured me there would be few, if any. I went her one better. I did a Google search on the 'net. Sure enough! Butter tarts are from Canada .. actually from Ontario, which is where I was born. Imagine! I did check with my friends at work and Colleen was right - none of them had ever heard of butter tarts.

Well, the obvious next step was to get a recipe. Right? I wrote to my aunt, Elaine, who still resides in the frozen north and asked if she happens to have a family recipe for butter tarts. It was several days later that she replied. She'd looked through her recipes but couldn't find one for butter tarts. She recommended I search for them on the 'net because there are a lot of them out there (who knew?) I did a search but didn't find what I wanted. Most of them used Karo syrup and I *know* mom didn't use Karo syrup in hers. The ones that didn't use Karo syrup used those premade tart shells that are the size of a moon pie. Nope. I was disappointed, needless to say.

A week or so later, I was looking through a cookbook I had given my mom years ago. It was a cookbook that my church had put together a published and I had given one to each of my sisters and my mom. Mom had even inscribed my name and date in the front cover "Sharon - 1979". I have the same cookbook at home in Dublin and I know it has the BEST carrot cake recipe EVER and I was looking for it. As I'm thumbing through the dessert section I came upon a page that had been added to the cookbook .. it was typed, but not in the format of the other recipes. Lo and behold, it was a recipe for BUTTER TARTS! and no Karo syrup!! OH MY GOSH

You cannot imagine how excited I was. I told several friends about it and how I wanted to start making them .. to practice as it were, so I could do them every year for Christmas and make it part of our family tradition. I said the only thing I'd do different would be to use prepared pie pastry. I have it on good authority from Jill Manley (my daughter-in-law's sister) that Pillsbury Pie Crust is the closest to homemade she's ever found .. and that girl can make a mean pie!!

Marletta liked the idea so much she went to the store, bought two boxes of pie crust and left them in my refrigerator. I laughed when I got home and opened the 'frig! Since "the girls" were coming over that weekend for scrapbooking I went shopping for the rest of the ingredients and got to baking.

They were a hit! One batch makes about 4 dozen tarts and they taste so buttery .. even though there are only 4 T of butter in the whole batch. I'm still working on perfecting them -- getting the timing and oven temperature just right. They still boil over a bit more than I like but I'm getting no complaints from my taste testers. Ryan comes by my desk every day just in case I might have brought some in to work.

So now the recipe. You wouldn't believe how easy the filling is to make. The hardest part is the pie crust but if you use pre-made it's easier. Just fitting them into the little tart pans (now called mini-muffin pans!) is a bit of a pain .. but well worth it. I hope you'll give them a try and I really hope you enjoy them as much as I do .. well, WE do -- because there are several people here who would tell you they are very good.

I bought two tart pans from Target .. Wilton brand for $12.95 (really! cuz there's no tax here) .. and each makes 24 tarts. One pie crust will make a dozen tarts if you use a water glass that's 2 1/2 to 3" across. You do need to roll it out just a bit with a rolling pin so it's more circular and will do 12 circles (9 along the outside edge and 3 in the center). The recipe doesn't tell you to cut out the pie crust into 3" circles and pat them into the tart tins .. that's assumed.

Mom's Butter Tarts

1 1/2 cups currants or raisins
4 T butter (or more)
2 eggs
2 cups brown sugar
Few tsp rum or rum flavoring
Chopped nuts
Pie pastry

Soak currants or raisins in boiling water for 5 min or until they are plump - drain. Beat butter until creamy. Add eggs and brown sugar and beat until foamy. Add rum, chopped nuts and currants. Pour filling into uncooked tart shells.
Bake in 375 oven for 15-20 min or until brown. Cool slightly before removing gently from pans to wire rack.

So, from Cecilia Robichaud Dunlop, and me -- ENJOY!