I associate butter tarts with Christmas. When I was growing up, my family used to make dozens of butter tarts in advance and freeze them to eat over the holidays and bring to parties. Except that I developed a taste for frozen butter tarts and would eat directly from the frozen stash. We used to make them with frozen tart shells, which have a pleasing, slick quality and impossible identical thinness that I can never achieve with homemade pastry. I also find the homemade shells are often thicker than I like. I know I'm a blasphemer, but I think the pre-made shells were usually better.
Transforming the tarts into bars with a gooey, just-set filling over a shortbread crust is quicker and easier, with no fiddly shells to fill, and the texture of the base reminds me of the frozen pastry shells. Making butter tart bars seems a bit less Christmasy than tarts, so I don't feel weird making them all year round. Butter tarts usually have either raisins or nuts; I prefer raisins. Their stickiness enhances the goopiness of the filling. Butter tarts were developed in Canada and they are very similar to American pecan pie, but they are always made in bite-size tarts rather than as one big pie. Except when they are made as bars!
butter tart squares
adapted from Canadian Living
crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter
Preheat oven to 350°F. Blitz all ingredients together in a food processor until the texture of sand. Press into the bottom of a parchment-lined 9 inch baking tin. Prick all over with a fork, bake until pale gold, about 15 mins.
filling:
2 tbs butter, melted
2 eggs beaten
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbs all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 pinch salt
2/3 cup raisins
Combine everything in a medium bowl, mix until evenly incorporated. Pour over hot crust and bake 20-25 mins, or until the top is crackly and crisp. The filling should still wiggle and jiggle a bit-it's very important not to overcook it so it winds up too set. Err on the side of slightly under baked.
Cool in the pan and cut into squares. These freeze well, but they taste great frozen, so watch out for snacking accidents.
Photos: Tyrel Hiebert