At a fabulous supper party at my next-door neighbour, Catherine’s house she proved once again that not only is she stunningly beautiful and talented but also an amazing cook (You’d really have to hate her if she wasn’t a truly lovely person as well – trust me she has it all). She had cooker her mother’s recipe for Canadian butter tarts and I was absolutely blown away by how delicious they were. This is not her exact recipe, but I have tried to emulate hers and have cooked these for our traditional Christmas Eve drinks party tomorrow.
After that has finished, I will have the answer as to whether my guests think they are as good or better than mince pies, that is if they can still string a sentence together which is unlikely if last year was anything to go by. Anyway, here is my recipe for these deliciously simple tarts and yes, I cheated and used ready-made pastry…mea culpa!
Butter tarts -( makes 36 mini pies)
Ingredients: 2 packets of ready rolled shortcrust pastry, 2 large eggs, 175g light muscovado sugar, 100g raisins, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 50g butter, 4 tbsp double cream, 50g chopped pecan nuts.
Method: Pre-heat the oven to Gas 5, Electric 190/ or 170 Fan. Using a tart cutter,I cut 36 circles and placed in a miniature mince pie tray. Use the remaining pastry to cut small stars, or any other decorations you wish.
To avoid washing -up, I beat the eggs straight in to a non-stick 
saucepan and then added everything except the pecans. I then mixed throughly and placed over a medium heat, beating all the time until all the butter had melted and the mixture was 
thick and gooey and just starting to bubble. this can stick easily, so keep on mixing.
I spooned the filling in to the shells and placed starts on top of as many as I could, then placed in the oven for 15 minutes. Leave them in the tin for 5 minutes then remove gently and place on a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or cold.
The Bombay Boys 
Yes, yes it is! Back to horrible old normal, I thought I’d have a look at your blog to remind me of all the Christmas loveliness – and I had missed this post before Christmas! I can personally vouch for the fact that the butter tarts were AMAZING. I miss them.
good
To keep them from boiling over, as the tend to do, start with a pre-heated 200ºF oven – baking for 15 min and then raise the temperature to 350ºF for another 10-15 min until pastry is golden. Also, to avoid the pastry crumbling, leave the tarts to completely cool in the pan.
Enjoy. They are as good as mincemeat tarts. The flavours are less complex, but satisfying all the same.
Thank you so much for your comments. Very useful advice, let me know if you have any great recipes you want to post! Happy Christmas and Kind regards, kim