Janice’s butter tart squares

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This article was published 04/12/2010 (5511 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Day 4 of the Free Press’s 21 Days of Holiday Cookies features Janice’s Butter Tart Squares. We will be publishing one cookie recipe every day — Monday to Saturday — till Christmas.

JULIE Carl sent in a recipe from her friend Janice, who loves butter tarts but hates fiddling around with pastry shells. Janice changed the tarts to bars, making for an easy version of this classic Canadian dessert.

Janice’s Butter Tart Squares

114 g (1/2 cup) butter

125 ml (1/2 cup) berry sugar

250 ml (1 cup) all-purpose flour

2 eggs

310 ml (1 1/4 cup) brown sugar, packed

57 g (1/4 cup) melted butter

250 ml (1 cup) raisins

15 ml (1 tbsp) white vinegar

5 ml (1 tsp) vanilla

15 ml (1 tbsp) all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 175C (350F). Cream butter and sugar, then slowly mix in flour just until you have a crumbly dough. Press into a 22 x 22 cm (9 x 9 in) metal baking pan and bake for 10-12 minutes, or just until edges start to turn golden.

Beat eggs and brown sugar until well blended. Stir in melted butter, raisins, vinegar, vanilla and flour and mix until blended. Spread over base and bake for 20-25 minutes, until filling is nicely brown. (Baking times can vary. Bake until set for a firmer filling; leave a slight jiggle in the middle if you prefer a softer filling.)

Tester’s notes: You might want to line the pan with parchment paper with an overhang on two ends — a very Martha Stewart thing to do, but it does help get the wonderfully gooey squares out of the pan for cutting. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Alison Gillmor
Writer

Studying at the University of Winnipeg and later Toronto’s York University, Alison Gillmor planned to become an art historian. She ended up catching the journalism bug when she started as visual arts reviewer at the Winnipeg Free Press in 1992.

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