Best Butter Tart Recipe

In my world, it's just not Christmas without Butter Tarts. Butter tarts are quintessentially Canadian, the perfect addition to your Christmas baking tray, and the ultimate Canadian treats and comfort food. We always have them around at Christmas time.

This recipe is my family’s favorite recipe (my Grandma's old fashioned butter tarts recipe) and the best butter tarts recipe you will find because they taste amazing, are simple to make (with an easy butter tart filling), and can be made in 20 minutes with store-bought tarts shell or homemade pie crust, and with pecans or raisins. I love these easy butter tarts so much that they inspired me to create Butter tart cookies, Butter Tart Waffles, Butter tart Ice cream, Butter Tart Cupcakes, and Butter Tart Cake!

🥘 Ingredient Notes

I used to make this easy butter tart filling along with my grandma's amazing No Fail Cold Water Pastry (pie dough).  However,  I don't always have the time to make pastry these days (especially around Christmas)!

But even with store-bought pastry, these butter tarts will leave you begging for more.

These Best ever Butter tarts are to die for! And although I love my raisin butter tarts, not everyone has the same appreciation for raisins (including half of my family.) So if you want butter tarts without raisins, you can easily substitute pecans and enjoy pecan butter tarts instead! Or leave the raisins and nuts out altogether.

I make my butter tarts with both pecans and raisins so everyone is happy. For this butter tart recipe (without corn syrup), you will need:

• Butter. Butter gives these tarts their delicious flavor!* I use unsalted
• Brown sugar. Gives these tarts a rich deep sweetness.
• Eggs. Eggs bind and thicken the tart.
• Cream (table cream/coffee cream- 18%) Cream makes these creamy and velvety. *Don't use whipping cream - it's too heavy!
• White vinegar. Vinegar balances the sweetness.
• Raisins (or chopped pecans). This gives texture to the butter tarts. If you use pecans, they taste a littlemore like pecan pie.
• Tart shells. You can use pre-made tart shells (shown in photos) if you're in a hurry or make them with my No Fail Pie Crust (Cold Water Pastry) recipe or your own tart shells (own pastry recipe)

*See recipe card for ingredient amounts

📋Variations & Substitutions

• Tart Shells: My advice is to splurge on the brand name (ie: Tenderflake) flaky pastry shells for store-bought. When I bought the no-name brand, I regretted it - they tend to be too salty. You could use homemade pie crust instead, as they are simply mini pie crusts and easy to make, with a round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter.
• Brown Sugar: you can use light or dark brown sugar
• Mini tarts - you can make these into mini tarts with mini tart shells. You just need to cook them for half the time in a mini muffin pan (affiliate link) and you'll get almost twice as many. The mini tarts are great for cookie exchanges!

👪 Serving size

This Canadian Butter tart recipe makes 12 butter tarts if you are using homemade shells. If you are using store-bought, you can get up to 14 tarts. You can half, double or triple the recipe by clicking on the servings number in the recipe card. Simply select the number of servings you'd like and the ingredient amounts will adjust accordingly.

🌡️Storage

• These Tenderflake butter tarts can be stored, in an airtight container, in the fridge for 5 days. 
• This easy recipe freezes well for up to 3 months in a sealed airtight container. *If you stack them, be sure they are completely cooled (hardened), and put parchment or wax paper between the layers.