Dooher's Bakery Butter Tarts

Yield: 12

Ingredients

Filling

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 2 to 3 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs

Pastry

• 2 cups pastry flour (or all-purpose flour) (divided)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup lard
• 2 to 3 tablespoons ice water

Instructions

Filling

1. Mix brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, cornstarch and vanilla extract in bowl until smooth.
2. Add eggs and mix until smooth. Set aside.

pastry

1. In a bowl, mix 1/4 cup flour, salt, shortening and lard until just creamed.
2. Add remaining 13/4 cups flour.
3. Add water, starting with 2 tablespoons and adding more as needed. Mix until all flour is incorporated.
4. Roll out to 1/8 inch thickness and cut into rounds to fit into standard-size muffin pan.
5. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
6. Fill pastry cups 3/4 full with butter tart filling. For runny tarts, bake until pastry is just cooked - about 15 minutes.
7. Bake in preheated oven for up to 25 minutes for thicker centers.
8. Let pan stand on rack 1 minute.
9. Run metal spatula around tarts to loosen; carefully slide spatula under tarts and transfer to rack to cool.

Attribution

Dooher's Bakery, Campbellford, Ontario, Canada