The Butter Tart: A Truly Quintessential Treat in Canada (2024)

FAQs

Why are butter tarts famous in Canada? ›

Like many legendary dishes, the butter tart's origins are fuzzy. It's believed that filles à marier (“marriageable girls”) created a crude version in the 1600s. These newly arrived Québécois brides filled their French tarts with New World ingredients: maple sugar, freshly churned butter and dried fruit such as raisins.

Does America have butter tarts? Yes, any decent bakery will typically carry butter tarts, that quintessential Canadian pastry.

A butter tart is a small pastry tart, which generally consists of butter, sugar, syrup, and egg, filled into a flaky pastry and baked until the filling is semi-solid with a crunchy top. The first published recipe came in 1900 with The Women's Auxiliary of the Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook.

Butter tarts are a quintessential Canadian dessert—and, oh, how I love them! 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.

“Butterfat is more expensive and over the last couple of years, we've seen the Canadian Dairy Commission increase prices by about 12% and that 12% gets compounded throughout the supply chain,” Charlebois explained, adding that for dairy processors, it ends up costing more which means grocers then adjust their prices ...

With a gooey, just-set filling made with butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, and eggs, butter tarts are hard not to love. They have comforting notes of caramel and butterscotch and are perfect when you want something small and sweet.

Butter tarts are indeed a popular Canadian pastery. The phrase butter tart, as used in the song, is also slang for a woman's parts.

Here are some of the main differences: Ingredients: A tart filling is usually made of fruit, chocolate, cream, or nuts, and is often sweet. A quiche filling is usually made of eggs, cream, cheese, and meat or vegetables, and is always savory.

Butter Tarts should be stored in an airtight container and refrigerated, they will keep for up to five days in the fridge. If you keep them at room temperature remember they will only keep for about a day or 2 depending on how warm your home is. To freeze, place them in an airtight freezer container.

To explain it simply, palm oil given to dairy cows increases the proportion of saturated fat in milk compared to unsaturated fat, thus increasing the melting point of butter. This explains why butter made from cows fed with palm oil remains difficult to spread at room temperature..

Why are my butter tarts soggy? ›

If your butter tarts unfortunately turn out too soggy, it's likely your filling was too watered down or your pastry was rolled too thin. Next time, make sure your pastry is only rolled out to a 1/4-inch-thickness. It may take a couple tries to perfect your butter tart, and that's totally OK!

In 2019, more than 200,000 butter tarts were sold, a number Mealing expects to at least match this year.

History of the Pasteis de Nata (Portuguese Custard Tarts)

Initially produced in Belem, Lisbon, the origin of the pastel de nata is sacred and spiritual, known as the pastel de Belem. This delicacy was created before the 18th century by Catholic monks in the Jeronimos Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site today.

It starts with Canadian milk

The best butter comes from naturally delicious milk. It's collected at the farm and brought to the creamery.

Butter tarts are an iconic Canadian dessert that's perfect for Thanksgiving or any other holiday or special dinner. With a tender flakey crust and a gooey buttery filling, the prep work is surprisingly easy and they bake up in just 18 minutes.

Melktert (/ˈmɛlktɛrt/, Afrikaans for milk tart) is a South African dessert originally created by the Dutch settlers in the "Cape" (South Africa) consisting of a sweet pastry crust containing a custard filling made from milk, flour, sugar and eggs.