Ode to a Butter Tart

So, this whole "not baking" thing is "not going so well".

Ahem.

It was a quiet Wednesday on the island.  The laundry was done, the house was cleaned.  The books were read and the garden didn't need weeding.  Although, that being said I did spend a considerable amount of time stringing tin pie plates to stakes to keep the critters away from my pepper patch and my cherry tree.  So yeah, by 9:30 I was at loose ends as to how to spend the rest of the day.

Oh, sure, I did some research on the internet and I wrote a paragraph or two on a project I'm working on, but really?  Really?  By 10 my loose ends had unraveled like a skein of wool being bandied about by a newborn kitten.

My cousin recently opened a coffee shop in Ontario cottage country and every day she faithfully posts on Facebook what fabulous concoctions she's baked for that day.  One day it's cheddar cheese & bacon biscuits and the next day it's pina colada muffins.  One of her most regular menu items, however, is this little sweet treat known as the butter tart muffin.

Now, my Canadian readers know all about the joys of a butter tart which is as Canadian as hockey, beavers and Tim Horton's donuts.  But for those of you that read from south of the border let me just try to explain the joys of a butter tart.

First you must know that a butter tart is a pastry.  Fluffy and flakey it melts in your tongue, but the best part?  It isn't the light, fluffy pie-like crust....oh no, the  best part of a butter tart is the filling - all buttery and sugary and full of plump vanilla and butter soaked raisins.  Sometimes butter tarts have a medium bodied filling which can be both thick  and chewy.  But the best, very best butter tarts are runny butter tarts.  Those are tricky to eat - the filling is all gooey and runny and liquid-y and it leaks out of the tart with your first bite and then the challenge is to eat all that gooey goodness before it runs all over your face.  Yes, a butter tart is a thing to behold.

Every grandma I know north of the 49th parallel has their own recipe for butter tarts.  Each recipe has a slight variation - some with nuts, some without.  Some with raisins, some without.  Some runny, some not so much.    Pastry recipes are handed down generation to generation and butter tarts are the prized dessert on just about every Christmas buffet I have ever attended.  I've even been known to take more than my fair share and hide said booty in an undisclosed location just so I could enjoy eating another one when I had room in my belly!  I have no shame when it comes to butter tarts!

So you can imagine what runs through my mind when I see my cousin's daily menu featuring butter tart muffins.  A muffin that tastes like a butter tart?  How can that be so?  Curiosity killed the cat and I am here to tell you, it damn near killed Kim too.

So, yesterday in my sheer boredom I did a Google search for butter tart muffin recipes and lo and behold, I found several, but one recipe was listed on a Canadian Food site, so I decided to go with that one, being Canadian and all.  I mixed up the ingredients - butter, sugar, raisins, milk, vanilla, eggs, flour, walnuts, etc., etc., etc.  I scooped the batter into individual muffin tins and set them in the oven to convert into mouthwatering goodness.

They did not disappoint.  The fact that I only ate ONE yesterday is perhaps a sign that I am winning the willpower battle.  The one whom I adore enjoyed his so much last night that he asked me to pack him up a couple to enjoy at the office this morning with his morning coffee.  He never takes "to go" food to the office, so I'm thinking, yeah, these are pretty darned good.

If you find yourself in Huntsville this summer, stop by the newest coffee shop in town, Mugzy's and try one of these tasty little Canadian creations yourself!

Or, google the recipe.