Canadian Butter Tarts

Ingredients

• 1 package (2 crusts) refrigerated pie dough
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup corn syrup
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup raisins or chopped pecans (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C). Cut the dough into rounds and press into a muffin tin.
2. Whisk the brown sugar, corn syrup, melted butter, egg, and vanilla together until smooth.
3. Divide the raisins or pecans (if using) among the shells, then fill each two-thirds full with the filling.
4. Bake for 15–18 minutes, until the pastry is golden and the filling is bubbling and just set at the edges but still slightly soft in the center.
5. Cool in the tin 10 minutes before removing.

The Tale of Canadian Butter Tarts

Story updated September 18, 2026

The butter tart is widely considered one of the few dessert recipes to have originated in Canada, though its exact roots are debated. One theory traces it to the filles du roi, roughly 800 young Frenchwomen sent to Quebec between 1663 and 1673 to help colonize New France, who are thought to have adapted a French sugar tart using ingredients available in their new home. A competing theory credits settlers from the England-Scotland border region who arrived in Canada in the 1800s carrying recipes for Ecclefechan tart, a dried-fruit tart baked in a pastry shell that shares a strong resemblance to the modern butter tart. The earliest known published recipe recognizably matching today's version appeared in 1900, in The Women's Auxiliary of the Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook from Ontario, made with currants rather than the raisins or pecans common now. Ontario in particular has embraced the tart as a regional icon, home to festivals and bakery rivalries devoted to it.