Indulge in some great Old Fashioned Butter Tarts. A Canadian classic dessert recipe with sweet, slightly runny filling and flaky melt in your mouth pastry.
This best ever recipe for Old Fashioned Butter Tarts is a popular treat for Holiday Baking, but tastes so terrific you’ll want to bake up a batch throughout the year. My recipe for Old Fashioned Butter Tarts gets rave reviews with its perfect consistency of gooey sweet filling and the homemade tarts shells that are crisp and flaky.
Every family Christmas someone brought Butter Tarts and they always seemed the first treat to disappear. I think the true test of an exceptional butter tart is the crust; and in my opinion that means making the shells from scratch. This crust recipe is light, flaky and buttery tasting! The filling is so simple to prepare and can be used as is (my preference) or add raisins or pecans.
Old Fashioned Butter Tarts
The perfect butter tart recipe with sweet, slightly runny filling and flaky melt in your mouth pastry.
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Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Servings: 16
Calories: 296kcal
Ingredients
- Tart Shell Pastry
- 2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup butter chilled and cut into pieces
- 1/4-1/2 cup ice cold water
- Butter Tart Filling
- 1/2 cup soft butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup corn syrup golden
- 2 eggs slightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Butter Tart Pastry
- Sift flour, salt and sugar together.
- Using pastry blender cut butter into flour mix until resembles course meal.
- Add cold water a bit at a time until dough just starts to hold together. (too much water will make for a tough dough).
- Press dough together and shape into disk.
- Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Roll out tart dough and cut 16 4-inch circles.
- Press dough in muffin cups (try not to stretch dough).
- Refrigerate until filling is prepared.
- Butter Tart Filling
- In large bowl, mix together butter, brown sugar and corn syrup. Stir until butter is creamed and sugar is dissolved.
- Add eggs, vanilla and pinch of salt. Mix well.
- Fill tart shells with filling.
- Bake 400F for 15-20 minutes.
- Filling should be lightly browned and still bubbling.
- Let tarts cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then transfer to rack to cool completely.
Notes
Store bought pastry tart shells will work as well. Add raisins or pecans if you like.
Nutrition
Calories: 296kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 66mg | Sodium: 314mg | Potassium: 42mg | Sugar: 15g | Vitamin A: 560IU | Calcium: 18mg | Iron: 1.1mg
Nanaimo Bars are another fabulous Canadian treat that you must try.
Here is a great image for Pinterest.
they look amazing!
thank you Dina!
Would love to make these, but don’t want to mess with making crust from scratch… What already made product could I purchase that would work?? I will try scratch sometime, just don’t have time for it now…
There are pre made shells available in most grocery stores that are “acceptable” and better than none.
agreed Liz, I love homemade ones, but the store bought ones are totally acceptable.
Store bought do not touch homemade, for pastry. These are all butter and ones with lard/shortening are not nearly as flacky
I disagree I make butter tarts I have been working with pastry for over 30 years & my pastry is beautiful nice & flakey & tasty every time ! I garrentee it !
I agree. I only use tenderflake lard and follow the recipe on the box. Very flaky pastry every time. Almost a fail proof recipe.
I just made and used phyllo shells. Dont know if i spelled right. But turned out wonderful. Buttery and flaky. Probably lots cheaper to make ur own, but I didn’t want to fool with making own this time. Considering how good they turned out, probably will continue to use store bought round shells. Husband has already dated 5!!
I would buy Tenderflake pre-made tart shells. They can be found in freezer section of grocery store. Thaw before filling.
Thank you for sharing Laureen. When parents took us to Toronto for family vacations during the USA Labor Day Weekends–long weekends;-) There was a bakery on Bloor Street or Yorkville near the Westbury Hotel on the lower level of an international bldg. They made these tarts all year round They are soooooo delicious was always wondering how to make them Thank you again looking forward to making them.
Thank you for sharing that special story. It is funny how certain food can bring back fond memories. Have a very Merry Christmas!
These look incredible!!
Thank you Amber! Hope you had a special Christmas.
These look delicious! I don’t like to use corn syrup,do you know of a substitute that would work?
I have never used a substitution, about the only thing that comes to mind to try might be agave nectar.
Maple syrup. great replacement
I don’t like to use corn syrup either so I substitute for equal amount of “real” maple syrup.
Maple syrup is the very best for the filling – they will be runny, though!
Maple syrup sounds great as well Elaine!
My Grandmaw made what she called Pecan Tarts for years. One of my favorites. Not sure where she got the recipe. It is nice to discover where it originated. Thank you.
Recipes passed down from Grandmas are the absolute best!
There is a rice syrup that might work.
for the corn syrup (golden) Is golden a brand name or do you mean dark corn syrup? Thanks for the recipe and I will try it as soon as I know about the corn syrup.
Golden is the type of corn syrup, not the brand, the label should have on it Golden corn syrup. It is usually a golden brown colour. I used Crown brand.
Golden is a brand name and the syrup is golden. I just use hat ever syrup is available
Your tarts are beautiful!!
Thanks so much swirls and spice
How many dozen dies this recipe make?
This recipe makes 16 tarts Kim
Hey, I made these yesterday and the filling never firmed up. It’s super runny. Any ideas on where I went wrong?
Hi Hella, for this recipe the filling shouldn’t firm up, it is suppose to be gooey and a bit runny. If it is too runny you may try refrigerating them for a while.
I used this recipe for years and made thousands of tarts for my restaurant. You can make the filling firmer by just baking longer. The entire secret is oven temp and baking time. Your oven may not bake the same as mine therefore bake, bake, bake and with practice, you choose a time and temp that produces tarts exactly as you like them.
Thanks Annette for the great tips, I agree, everyone prefers their butter tarts a certain way. I personally like them quite runny. Messy but good.
This puts my old recipe to shame.
Thank you Old Fashioned Recipes, it is an family favourite.
Hi Lauren, I just took these out of the oven and they look amazing! I never change a recipe the 1st time I make it, but I don’t use Caro Syrup, so I sub honey for that. I tried one when they were still hot and they taste yummy! I took a couple photos, but didn’t see an option to upload.
Thanks so much for this recipe! My 1st time making tarts!
terrific, try posting a photo to my Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/ArtAndTheKitchen/photos/pb.127803530683115.-2207520000.1450415907./735543966575732/?type=3&theater
If I wanted to add raisins or pecans how much should I add to this recipe? Thanks!
Hi Jillian, sorry for the delay in answering your question. I would add about a cup of raisin or pecans.
Thank you!
These look amazing, would these freeze well
Yes they do Trudy.
After making 5 tarts pans of butter tarts and some boiled over and were so hard to get out that I decided to try this. I cut strips of parchment paper about 1-1/2″ wide, put one in each tart pocket and put the pastry on top and fill your pastry, bake and when you want to take them out, pull of the two parchment tabs and they come out so easily and none break!!
Thanks for the helpful tip Carole, I haven’t run into the problem of my tarts sticking but maybe because my tart pan are non stick type.
Hi Laureen
My tart pans are non stick also but they still stick and some of the tarts break making it so frustrating! This is so easy! They all came out just fine. All my friends said they have the same problem. They will be happy to hear my idea!
C
Thank you Carole for the great tip, I really appreciate when someone shares helpful ideas. Have a terrific Holiday Season
This worked so well. Best tip I’ve had in ages. Thanks.
This is a great idea! I have been using the small silicone trays and pushing them up out of the pan once cooled. I will try your method with metal pans. Thanks!
I had so much trouble with the pastry, I used the full 1/2 cup of ice water but I couldn’t get the pastry to stick together it was crumbly and very, very dry. Don’t know what I did wrong, this is a first for me.
Anyway I’ll try and squeeze it together &a roll it out. Wish me luck.
Hi Joanne, I’m perplexed, its so hard to see what happened without seeing it. Did you blend correct amount of butter with the flour and use a pastry blender until it was a mealy consistency before add cold water?
What do you use if you have no pastry blender?
two knives would work
These came out excellent. I managed to get a full 2 dozen though, how thick do you roll your pastry? And what cook time&temp would you suggest for the mini tarts in your pictures?
I assume you used a regular muffin pan, or are these with a mini pan?
Hi Cris, yes regular sized muffin pan.
Usually the flaky pastry is the ultimate test. There is now a butter tart festival in Midland , Ontario in early June-sell out of 50,000 tarts in a day. Tenderflake premades are a close second!
I would gain about 10 lbs going to a butter tart festival, but would be so good!!
I know this is a Canadian based recipe. All of my “regular” sized muffin pan are 12-muffin sized. I’ve looked on Amazon, can can’t find 16 muffin-cup pans. So, do you do two pans with empty muffin cups, use mini-muffin-cup pan (which is usually 24), or does Canada have a 16-cup pan? I guess I’m trying to determine of the tarts are standard muffin pan sized tarts, or if the size ratio is different in Canada due to a different pan size. Thanks in advance for the guidance.
Hi, I used two 12 muffin sized pans and left empty muffin cups. My muffin tin is not very deep so it works out to 16, but if you have a deeper muffin tin if would most likely make 12. Another option is to make 12 regular and then some mini ones.
Excellent recipe, from someone who is very nervous about making pie crust. Filling was traditional and perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Excellent Susan, I too still get nervous making pie crusts, but the homemade version is so much tastier!