Gary and I give up desserts for Lent, so it is a real treat for me to make and bake a tray of delicious butter tarts. We carry Gary and Jean Ivens beautiful local maple syrup at Sharyn’s Pantry. The recipe makes 12 large maple syrup butter tarts which I baked in my muffin tin. I made the pastry nice and deep to hold the bubbling filling as the tarts baked. That way I had no boil overs.

EASY PASTRY

6 cups unbleached pastry flour

1 tsp. fine salt

1 tbsp. white sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 lb. Crisco shortening

1 egg beaten in a measuring cup along with 1 tbsp. white vinegar and enough milk to bring the level of liquid to the 1 cup level (You may need a tiny bit more liquid.)

METHOD:

-Whisk together the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder in a large bowl.

-Using a pastry blender, cut in the pound of shortening into the dry ingredients, until the mixture resembles fine meal with some pieces of shortening the size of peas.

-Mix in the egg, vinegar and milk mixture. Add this into the flour mixture. I use a bowl scraper to combine everything. That way I don’t handle the tender dough with my hands. The dough must be wet enough to stick together when you squeeze a bit in your hand, but it must not be too wet either.

-You will have enough pastry dough for 6 single crusts or 3 double crust pies. Wrap and freeze any extras.

-To roll out, use our store’s handy pastry cloth and rolling pin cover for the easist way to roll your pastry, and not use a lot of flour to toughen the pie crust.

-For the 12 butter tarts:

-Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with no-stick spray. Roll out a piece of the pie dough to 1/4″ thickness. I used an empty 28 oz. can to cut the large rounds of pie dough. Gently press each round of dough into the muffin tin.

MAPLE SYRUP BUTTER TART FILLING

This recipe will make 12 large butter tarts. Set your oven to 375 degrees F.

1/4 cup soft butter

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg at room temperature

1/2 tsp pure vanilla

1/2 cup fresh local maple syrup (at room temperature)

1/4 cup toasted pecan pieces ( To toast them: Place the pecan pieces in a single layer on a pie plate. Place this in a 350 degree F. oven for about 5 – 7 minutes. Do extras for another time. Cool before using. I use toasted pecans in my salads, cookies, etc. )

METHOD:

-Sprinkle a few pecan pieces into each tart shell.

-In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the soft butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla and maple syrup together until nice and fluffy.With a rubber spatual, scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

-Spoon the filling into the tart shells. This amount of filling will perfectly fill the 12 tart shells.

-Use the oven rack 2nd from the bottom in your oven for the best browning of your pastry while baking.

-Bake the tarts in the pre-heated oven for 23 minutes, or just until the pastry is

lightly browned.

-As soon as I removed the pan of baked butter tarts from the oven, I ran the blade of a knife around the edge of the pastry to make sure that each tart was loosened.

-In just a minute, very carefully lift each tart from the pan and place them on a wire cooling rack to cool. Having the pastry just a bit thicker than normal will ensure that you will lift each tart out of the pan without breaking the pastry. ENJOY!!!