Dad's Pick: Butter Tarts.

My dad loves Butter Tarts so naturally, he wanted me to attempt to make them. When I asked him what made good butter tarts, he said "they need to be creamy." As someone who doesn't enjoy this particular baked good, it's hard to know what exactly he means by creamy. I figured I had to start somewhere, so here we began. They got two thumbs up, although I have yet to get feedback as to whether they are, in fact, creamy.




Butter Tarts
makes approx. 16

Ingredients:

Filling

1 cup raisins
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Pastry

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp. icing sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup shortening
1 Tbsp. white vinegar
2 Tbsp. ice water
1 egg

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To make the pastry, sift flour, icing sugar, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Pinch shortening into small cubes and rub lightly into the flour mixture until broken into crumbly pieces. Whisk vinegar, ice water, and egg with a fork in a separate bowl. Pour around edges of flour mix and pull together to form a ball. Flatten into 2 disks and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Roll out to 1/8" thick and cut 4" round. Form circles into small muffin pan.

For the filling, combine raisins, butter, sugar, syrup, and salt in a heavy saucepan. Heat on the stove at low heat until butter is melted and the mix is warm. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and eggs. Fill the muffin pan 2/3 full. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until crust is golden brown.