Butter Tarts and Cherry Tarts

Mom makes cherry and butter tartlets for family celebrations. The small cherry tarts are so pretty, it's hard to resist popping one in your mouth. 

She uses lard to make her pastry, and says Maple Leaf Tenderflake Lard was better than no-name. versions. 

Make your pastry dough first because it has to be chilled before rolling out.

The recipe for Marilyn's "Perfect Pastry" Dough 

Printed on the yellow Tenderflake Lard box, it's basically:

1. Sift into a large bowl:

•  5-1/2 cups pastry flour or  6 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt

2. Cut in:

• the box of Tenderflake Lard (1 lb or 454 grams)

3. In a measuring cup, beat:

• 1 large egg, add
• 1 Tbsp vinegar, add
• enough cold water to equal 1 cup liquid.

4.  Add liquid to lard and flour mixture.

     With a fork, blend only enough to make a dough.

5.  Shape into a disc, cut in half, make into 2 rounds.

     Wrap in plastic wrap.

6.  Refrigerate to cool before rolling (15-30 minutes.)

If lard can't be used, here is a substitute from the makers of Crisco vegetable shortening:

Vegetable Shortening No-Fail Pastry Dough

Recipe makes enough for 1 batch of raisin butter tart tartlets. To make raisin tarts and cherry tarts, double this recipe.

Combine in a mixing bowl:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp salt

Cut in with pastry blender, until mixture resembles uniform, coarse crumbs:

• 1 cup all-vegetable shortening (Crisco)

In a measuring cup or small bowl, beat:

• 1 large egg
• 2 Tbsp cold water
• 1 Tbsp white vinegar

With a fork, stir liquid into flour mixture.

With clean hands, press dough into a round, cut in half, make two 4" rounds.

Wrap the 2 rounds in plastic wrap, refrigerate 15 minutes.

Roll each portion of dough separately, on flour-dusted parchment paper, with a flour-dusted rolling pin.

Cut dough into tart rounds using a round cookie cutter or inverted glass, about 2-1/2 inch in diameter for most mini tartlet pans (cut to fit yours).

Cherry Tartlets

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Roll out pastry dough and cut pastry rounds to fit tartlet pans, using a round cookie cutter or the edge of a juice glass to cut the rounds.

Fill with cherry pie filling,* making sure there is at least 1 cherry in each tartlet.

Bake in preheated 425 degree F oven 8 minutes.

Reduce heat to 350 degrees.

Continue baking until pastry edges are just barely browned.

Mom uses E.D. Smith Cherry Pie Filling. I've also made my own using frozen cherries cooked with a little water and sugar and thickened with cornstarch, then cooled. You can substitute blueberry pie filling too.

If my mom had leftover pastry dough, she'd let the kids roll it out themselves, spread with jam, and roll up. Bake in the oven while the tarts are baking. Watch carefully--they  bake faster than the tarts. Jam will be very hot out of the oven, so make sure they're cool before letting the kids eat these pastry creations.

Raisins

Purists say butter tarts are tarts with a butter/syrup filling, no raisins allowed.

When our family refers to butter tarts, we mean tarts made with raisins.

Great-Aunt Isabel's butter tarts were syrupy, with a thicker, shortening-based pastry dough. 

Marilyn's butter tarts had a flaky lard-based pastry dough with a chewier raisin butter tart filling.

Both used brown Thompson raisins, which are sun-dried longer than Sultanas to achieve a darker colour and unique flavour. Thompsons are usually used in butter tart filling and in raisin bread. 

Sultana raisins are made from light golden or green grapes.

Some brands are dipped in hot water and treated with sulfur dioxide to retain a golden colour.

Others are treated with potassium carbonate and an olive oil solution.

Organic Sultanas are made by sun-drying seedless light golden or green grapes.

Use sultanas in hot cross buns and recipes where a fruity or honey-like burst of sweetness works, but not in Marilyn's butter tarts.

Marilyn's Butter Tarts

This is the butter tart filling mom uses when she makes regular-sized butter tarts.

This filling has less syrup than other recipes but the raisins won't be dry after baking if you pre-soak them.

• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1-1/2 tbsps. milk
• 2 cups Thomson (brown) raisins
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• unbaked tart pastry shells

Cover raisins with very hot water and let stand 5 minutes.

Drain very well. Let stand.

All ingredients should be at room temperature.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.*

Cream butter and brown sugar.

Mix in milk, eggs, vanilla and raisins.

Spoon into unbaked tart shells .

Bake in preheated 450 degree F oven for 8 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Watch them: bake until filling bubbles and pastry is delicately golden.

*Note: The original recipe says to bake 450 degrees 8 minutes and reduce the temperature to 350 degrees until pastry is browned. Mom found they sometimes overbaked this way in her new oven and reduced the starting temperature to 375 degrees F for a better result.

Marilyn's Butter Tartlets

Filling for about 3 dozen small tarts about 1-1/2 inches in diameter.

The filling is a little less runny than the filling recipe for the regular-size tarts.

All ingredients should be at room temperature, or butter may clump.

In a mixer, whip:

• 1 /3 cup softened butter

Sift or blend brown sugar to remove lumps.

Then in the mixer, add to the butter: 

• 1 cup sifted brown sugar (no lumps)

Beat until smooth and well-mixed.

Mix in:

• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Stir in:

• 1/2 cup brown (Thompson) raisins (If they are not soft and plump out of the bag, pre-soak in hot water and let stand 5 minutes. Drain well and wrap in a paper towel to remove excess water.) 

Spoon filling in uncooked, pastry-lined tartlet pans.

Bake in preheated 375- 450 degree F oven* for 8 minutes.

The original recipe says to preheat oven to 450 degrees and bake for 8 minutes before reducing heat.. Mom found they sometimes overbaked in her new oven and reduced the starting temperature to 375 degrees F for 8 minutes for a better result.

Reduce heat to 350 degrees.

Bake till pastry edges are lightly browned.

Syrupy Butter Tarts

These tarts are from Edna Staebler's 1968 Mennonite country cooking cookbook "Food That Really Schmecks".  She writes that these are, "The best tarts in the world: rich, gooey and a bit runny." 

Great-Aunt Isabel's butter tarts were like these. Isabel raised four children practically by herself and later had a job in a busy hospital, so she liked shortcuts in the kitchen and used store-bought, frozen pastry tart shells when she didn't have time to roll out dough. 

• Pastry for 8 or 10 regular-size tarts
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 large egg, beaten
• butter the size of an egg, melted
• 1 Tbsp water
• 1 tsp vanilla

Beat the egg, add the sugar and beat again.

Add the water, vanilla raisins and butter.

Drop mixture into tart shells to almost half-full.

Bake in a 450-degree oven for about 15 minutes.

Golden Raisin Tarts

Sultanas are usually more expensive than brown raisins, but you might like to try making these too.

• 1/2 cup golden raisins (Sultanas)
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp light corn syrup

Place the raisins in a small bowl and cover with warm water.
Let soak 20 minutes.
Drain well and reserve. 
In a small saucepan on medium low heat, add  butter and sugar.
Stir till just melted.
Add corn syrup, vanilla extract and drained raisins.
Beat in the eggs and whisk over the heat for 5-6 minutes or until mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Do not overcook.

Makes 8-10 mini tarts