If you are not familiar with Canadian butter tarts, you absolutely must give them a try. Flaky mini pastry tarts filled with delicious custard, raisins and walnuts. These maple butter tarts are delicious and a true Christmas classic.
For another Canadian Christmas classic, take a look at our Nanaimo Bars.
What is your favourite holiday treat and do you stay faithful to it every year? For me it’s Rugelach or as we call them in Russia Rogalik. For the rest of my family it is definitely Butter Tarts.
These treats are as Canadian as can be. Although commonly made with corn syrup I have upped the Canadian and yum factor I swapped it for a true Canadian hero, maple syrup.
If you haven’t tried one before, think of a small serving of classic American pecan pie in an individual serving with a flaky pastry shell. But this classic Canadian dessert has a moorish gooey filling that’s wonderfully runny and has more delicious buttery pastry per mouthful!
What are butter tarts?
Ask anyone from the True North about Butter Tarts and they will break into an emotional ode to the beloved childhood Christmas treat. Light and flaky tarts filled with maple custard, raisins and walnuts. What’s not to love?
If you are reading this from the US, butter tarts are actually quite similar to Pecan Tassies. (I hope I won’t lose my citizenship over this!)
Despite the comparison, these truly are a quintessential Canadian dessert. The earliest published recipe dates as far back as 1900 in the Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook, which I suspect none of us have on our shelves!
Of course this is disputed – everything seems to be! – and some say it has a French Canadian origin, or even roots in Scotland. But butter tarts as we know them are most likely purely Canadian treats. So popular, in fact, there are festivals in their honour and appearances on postage stamps!
A great endorsement has come from my son: “When I first looked at them I didn’t think it was my kind of food. But when I bit into one it was DELICIOUS!”
I always make these little tarts for Christmas, but they are just too good to only eat one time of the year. So whether you are planning for Canada Day or just want something special for the weekend, give this Canadian classic a try!
This recipe is for Maple Butter Tarts because what can’t maple syrup make better? If you want a more traditional version, I have you covered there too with my classic Butter Tart recipe.
How to make them
They may look fiddly to make but they are really quite easy, a great treat to make with kids. And if you use a pre-made crust for the tart shells like I did nothing could be faster.
All you have to do is to roll out your pre-made pastry to ⅛″ thickness and cut out rounds to line your muffin tins using a 4″ round cookie cutter. (I didn’t have one so I used a regular glass), then fill them with the maple and nut mixture.
I find that using pre-made pie dough is the easiest way to make maple butter tarts. If you feel a bit more ambitious and decide to make your own pastry, you can use my favourite pie crust recipe . If you do buy store-bought pie crusts, look for a variety made with all butter to get that beautiful flaky crust.
Making the gooey filling is about as easy as it could be. Combine all the filling ingredients together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. Add the cut pastry dough to a muffin tin and bake until they are golden brown.
Recipe tips and notes
- One thing to watch out for is spills around the muffin cups. You want to keep things fairly clean. Otherwise your spilled filling will caramelise around the edges of the tarts while baking, which makes it nearly impossible to remove them from a pan. If any of the runny filling is spilled around the tarts it will caramelise and seal them to the muffin pan if left to cool. It’s best to move the tarts to a wire rack as soon as they are cool enough to handle.
- The gooey filling will rise as the tarts bake and can easily overflow the pastry shells. Avoid the temptation to fill to the top and limit the filling to ⅔rds of the individual tarts.
- To make it even easier to remove the tarts from the muffin tin, I use a good amount of cooking spray. This helps stop the buttery pastry from sticking.
- Getting the tart filling right is important to making the perfect butter tart, but what makes the best filling is down to personal preference. I like mine to have a nutty flavour so pack in plenty of walnuts to go with golden raisins. Pecans will also do nicely. If you want, you can increase or decrease the amount of nuts and raisins to get the balance just right for you, or even get a bit adventurous and throw in extras like chocolate chips!
- For a striking effect sprinkle with some icing sugar and drizzle with some melted white chocolate.
Storage and leftovers
Maple butter tarts can be stored for up to a week if kept refrigerated in an airtight container or covered in plastic wrap. Let them come to room temperature before serving.
They also freeze very well. Let them cool on the wire rack then move to a container that can be made airtight. Add a layer of wax paper or parchment paper between the tarts so they don’t freeze together. They’ll keep for up to three months.
More favourite Christmas treats
Maple Butter Tarts
Ingredients
- 500g/18oz pie crust prepared or your favourite recipe
- 150g/3/4cup brown sugar, packed
- 125ml/1/2cup maple syrup
- 75ml/1/3cup butter melted
- 2 eggs large
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- ½ tsp salt
- 75g/1/2cup raisins
- 60g/1/2cup walnuts, chopped optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F/180C.
- In a medium bowl combine melted butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, eggs, vinegar and salt and whisk until combined. Add raisins and chopped walnuts.
- Roll out the pastry to a ⅓ cm/1/8" thickness and cut out rounds with a 10 cm/4" pastry cutter or use a glass. (My glass was 9 cm/3.5" in diameter) Line muffin tin cups with pastry rounds. Fill the muffin cups with the maple/nut mixture until ⅔ full.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until the custard is set and the pastry is golden. Run a knife around the edges of the tarts as soon as you remove them from the oven to release them from the tin.