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Butter Tarts - Shells
(recipe, Anna Conley)
Introduction
We have had such a craving for these things! I think I finally cured it. Which is good because I am all out of ingredients to make any more. lol These are such a delicious treat! They are a tradition in Canada. For my American friends, a butter tart is like a miniature pecan pie. I grew up on them with raisins, which I like to think is the traditional kind of butter tart. Only later in life did I discover that you can buy these with pecans, walnuts, or even plain. My husband's preferred type is plain. I like 'em plain or with pecans. I don't mind the raisins, but I'd rather skip 'em if given the choice.
I use just the good old CRISCO recipe for a double crust pie. I had enough for a dozen with scraps leftover. I tossed the scraps because you can only roll your dough so many times before it gets too dry and tough.
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- ¾ cup CRISCO All-Vegetable Shortening, well chilled (you can definitely sub. unsalted butter for the shortening)
- 4 to 8 Tbsp. ice cold water
Steps
- Blend the flour and salt in medium bowl. Cut ½ inch (1.5cm) cubes of chilled shortening into flour mixture using a pastry blender or two knives, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with pea-sized pieces remaining.
- Sprinkle 4 tablespoons of the ice cold water over the flour mixture. Using a fork, stir and draw flour from bottom of bowl to the top; press chunks down to bottom of bowl with fork. Add more water by the tablespoon, mixing until dough holds together.
- Divide dough in two. Flatten balls into ½ inch (1.5cm) thick disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for 30 minutes or up to 2 days.
- Roll out dough and cut out circles to fit into regular muffin pans. Mine needed 4.5 inch (11.5cm) circles. I didn't have a biscuit cutter big enough, so I used to the lid of the biscuit cutter container. Use whatever you have! A large drinking cup? Perfect! For deep-dish you want the circles big enough so that the sides go all the way up to the top of the muffin cup. If you make yours a little smaller, that's fine too. You will just end up with more butter tarts.
- So, finish filling the 12 muffin cups in your pan. When that's done, put it in the fridge to rest while you make the filling.