When my mother was young, every little café in Canada served butter tarts, buttery pastry filled with a caramel syrup and, some say Yes!, some say No way! raisins.
Last summer, I pulled into Sprague, the Minnesota-Manitoba border stop that from the road appears more like a dusty gas station than a small town.
The Grey Goose still pulls through Sprague twice a week, not twice a day as it did during the years when Mom pinned a note to my coat to put me on the bus at one end and Nana fetched me at the other.
I knew to sit at the front far from the smelly restroom and smokers. I knew to beg my Dad for a quarter for a Macintosh Toffee at the midway coffee stop. I knew to answer strangers politely and to spot one who looked like a mother if I needed help. I knew to stay alert for deer, bear and even timber wolf emerging from the woods along the gravel road.
So last summer, there at the Sprague café were butter tarts fresh from the oven, encased in glass, glistening in the light. I felt suddenly nostalgic for a time when $6 bought a bus ticket and a grown-up sense of freedom. I bought a tart to go and nibbled on it for 100 miles.
A week later, I found my mother’s recipe for butter tart bars and was transported back onto the bus crossing through the piney woods and sunflower fields of southern Manitoba, looking into the future, a mystery still unfurling.
BUTTER TART BARS
Baking time: 30 minutes plus cooling
Makes 54 small squares
-
CRUST
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1½ cups flour, fluffed before measuring
-
TOPPING
- ¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1 cup toasted pecans, chopped
- 1 cup currants (or slightly chopped raisins)
Preheat oven to 350F.
CRUST Melt butter in saucepan, stir in powdered sugar and flour. With flat of hand, press evenly into 9x13 pan. Bake for 5 minutes.
TOPPING Melt butter in same saucepan. Add brown sugar, stir til smooth. In separate large bowl, whisk eggs. Stir in butter mixture, then vanilla, pecans and currants. Gently and evenly arrange over crust.
Bake for 30 minutes, watching carefully near end to avoid burning. Remove from oven and cool. Cover and refrigerate to store.
Slices best when cold. Freezes well after cutting. Great addition to holiday trays.
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12/03/2006
12/05/2006
Duane ~ Darlin', I'll make these for you if you'll just visit St. Louis some time soon!
12/05/2006
12/07/2006
When we did a family cookbook a few years ago, she included at least three or four different butter tart recipes! Let me know how your husband likes them! AK
12/08/2006
I'm from Canada, there may be a little difference in terms.
Does powered sugar = icing sugar.
thanks so much!
Can't wait to make them!
b.
Thank you so much for the Butter Tart Bar Recipe. I made some for a cookie exchange and they were wonderful!
I think I'll make them every year...they were so decedent.
YUMmmmmmmmmmm!
b.
Thanks
First off, butter tarts aren't bars, you have to make them in small pastry containers, think of a lemon tart shell (is that Canadian too?).
Secondly your recipe sounds very tasty but no good Canadian would put nuts into a butter tart. That said, I have seen people "experiment" with nuts in a butter tart but this is not seen as the proper way to make them, they contain raisins, that's it and the idea of putting currants into it, that's sacrilegious, seriously, people would tell you, "That's not a butter tart!" if they saw currants in it.
Here is a CBC archived show all about the butter tart. Like I said, I'm sure yours are very delicious, they sound good but they aren't butter tarts.
Anyhow, here's a recipe most Canadians would call a "butter tart" from The Joy of Baking. I notice that she puts nuts in the tart, that's very rare actually and most people would comment on the fact that nuts were included.
I notice you wrote this article awhile ago, hope you got a laugh from my message. Just lately I have been on a butter tart rampage myself and that's how I came across your site. I bet other Canadians have written to say "Those aren't buttertarts."
Thanks,
Alex
Vancouver B.C.
(Originally from Ontario)
I am so happy to hear from you!! Thank you for caring so much to set me straight. : - )
I "do know" that my butter tart bars aren't REAL butter tarts -- my mother's recipe box probably contained a dozen different recipes. She really loved them and so had many variations.
When I decided to write the column, I chose the recipe that I thought more people would be likely to make and that -- currants or not (and really, currants are just not-as-sweet raisins), nuts or not -- is really tasty. Sadly, real pastry and real tart shells are a stretch for many.
I do make shells for lemon tarts too -- in fact my fridge has lemon curd in it right now, which I served to a whole group of Canadians just last week. But please don't shoot me! I put the curd into shells of bitter chocolate with a bit of cream cheese-mascarpone mixture and topped with a slice of strawberry. : - )
My whole goal is to get people to feel confident with "scratch cooking" -- and some times that means stretching authenticity a bit.
BTW the CBC audio clip is quite wonderful, thanks for sharing it.
When we kids had all left home, my mum began cooking at the roadside restaurant on the TransCanada highway that ran through town. She was known for her pastries and took many orders for pies at Christmas from people all over Manitoba.
Her butter tarts - the real thing - had both raisins and chopped walnuts so lots of "good" Canadians did and still do include nuts in authentic butter tarts.
So There!
: - )
I've not made nanaimo bars but sure remember them VERY fondly! There are a number of recipes for nanaimo bars on Food Blog Search.
Enjoy!