These butter tarts where one of Bubb’s specialties. She would generously give them to family and friends. It was not unheard of where a household would have arguments around how the butter tarts were divided up.
As with many of bubba’s recipes, this one is hand written.
All the ingredients are there with an option to make a small or large batch.
Bubba knew this recipe so well that there are no instructions.
I gave a small batch a try.
The results did not make it to the standards of Bibba, but they were pretty tasty.
And with keeping mum in mind, they were shared amongst friends.
RECIPE:
Pastry small batch
16 tablespoons shortening (1/2 cup)
1/4 tsp salt
3 cups flour
7-8 tablespoons of cold water
Butter tart filling (small batch)
2/3 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup chopped nuts
- For the pastry I mixed all the ingredients together and worked it into a smooth ball.
I then wrapped in cling wrap and put in the fridge for over an hour. - When I took the pastry dough out of the fridge I worked with half the dough at a time.
- I floured the counter and rolled the dough out to about 1/4 inch thick.
- I used a wine class as a cutter to cut circles about 3 1/2 inches wide.
- I reformed left-over dough to roll out again to cut more circles.
- I put the pastry rounds into a muffin tin working the sides of the dough up the sides of the tin.
- Once the tin was filled, I place it in the fridge while I made the filling.
- The small batch made almost 2 dozen rounds. I filled the empty spots with a bit of water to help insure an even bake.
- I chopped and roasted pecans.
- Preheated oven to 450 degrees.
- On the stove I combined the butter and brown sugar on medium heat, whisking together and heating for a few minutes after combined.
- In a bowl I whisked together the egg, milk, and vanilla.
- I removed the muffin tins from the fridge and placed a large pinch of currants and pecans into each pastry round.
- I poured the sugar mixture into the bowl and whisked together, then poured into a large measuring cup for easy pouring.
- I poured the wet mixture into each pastry round about 2/3 full. (I did run out of filling and had to make another batch up quickly.)
- The muffin tin was put into the oven. Baked for 8 minutes.
- The oven temperature was reduced to 350 degrees and baking continued until pastry had brown (approximately 5 minutes).
- Tarts were remove from the oven.
- The tarts were cooled completely before trying to remove them.
- Then the butter tarts were enjoyed and shared.
