Raisins Or No Raisins? Canada’s Superstar Tart

By Gabby Peyton

How do you know a baked good has reached superstar status? When they get their own culinary trail of course, and the butter tart has not one, but two pilgrimages dedicated to the sweet treat (not to mention at least half a dozen annual festivals).

A butter tart is sweet simplicity at its finest – a buttery pastry shell filled with a sweet, ooey-gooey filling and its signature (and necessary) crackling sugar top. The tart is an iconic Canadian dessert but is as divisive as it is delicious. Raisins or no raisins? Nuts or no nuts? There are many heated debates about this batted across baking tables across the country and while there will never really be any kind of agreement, one thing everyone can agree on? The butter tart is an emblem of Canadian cuisine.

The First Tarts

The history of the butter tart starts like many other iconic Canadian dishes: a result of adaptation and reinvention. In the mid-17th century, more than 800 unmarried French women, known as The Filles du Roi (King’s Daughters) were transported to New France, now modern-day Quebec. Between 1663 and 1673, these Filles du Roi, mostly unmarried young women, but also nuns and widows, were sponsored to immigrate to tip the scales of the territory’s gender imbalance. They were boarded in Canada until married with very little means and then had to raise their families on even less.

These women who were sent to boost settlement in New France (in fact, the baby boom during this period was bigger than the one after the Second World War) did what any resourceful baker does to make ends meet: they adapted recipes from the Old World to suit the ingredients of their new one. They invented the ancestral butter tart, using maple sugar and dried fruit, two ingredients in abundance, to make the French sugar pie, which led to the tarte au sucre, and later, the butter tart.

One for the recipe books

Throughout culinary history, there has been debate over the true influence of the butter tart. Some say it came over with the Scottish or evolved from American Loyalists’ renditions, but the use of maple syrup indicates its evolution centered in Quebec. And, while its roots sprouted in Quebec, the butter tart transitioned from an adaptation dessert to a superstar dish in Ontario in the early 20th century.

The first documented recipe for butter tarts appeared in 1900 within the pages of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook in Barrie Ontario, just north of Toronto. The ingredients for the recipe, attributed to a Mrs. Malcolm MacLeod, did not include raisins, but currants. The recipes for butter tarts skyrocketed in the 1900s, appearing in newspapers, cookbooks and community fundraising efforts. By the 1920s butter tarts had achieved superstar status and cemented its ooey-gooey filling into the Canadian culinary canon.

Enjoy to your tart’s content

There are great butter tarts to enjoy across Canada, but if you want to tap into the mapley-sweet butter tart scene, head to Ontario. There are two culinary trails worth exploring for the great Canadian butter tart.

The Kawarthas Northumberland region is about an hour’s drive east of Toronto, stretching up from Lake Ontario towards Parry Sound, with more than 250 lakes to sit beside while you’re enjoying your butter tarts. The official Butter Tart Tour was established in 2011, and now the self-guided tour offers more than 40 locations to snag an infamous sweet tart – they even have a trip planner to help you plan your snack attack. Try Royal Winter Fair-winning butter tarts at Betty’s Pies & Tarts in Coburg or a variety of different flavours in Peterborough at Doo Doo’s Bakery from Chocolate Peanut Butter Tarts to Fireball Butter Tarts.

On the east side of Toronto, you’ll also find the Wellington County Butter Tart Trail, which was established in 2006, and has almost 20 stops. At Barrel House bakery in Clifford, they make their butter tarts (classic or pecan) with barrel-aged apple crisp vinegar or try a pint of Butter Tart Beer at Four Father’s Brewing Co. in Hespeler Village.

Hungry for more? Check out these Classic Canadian Dishes:

• In a Jam(Jam): The History of Jam Jams in Canada
• Triple Threat: A History of the Nanaimo Bar
• Delicious Squared: History of Date Squares
• The History of the Iconic Jiggs Dinner
• The History of Pea Soup in Canada
• The History of Baked Beans in Canada
• Meat Pie Magic: The History of Tourtière
• Classic Canadian Dishes: Pouding Chômeur
• Classic Canadian Dishes: The Lobster Roll
• Classic Canadian Dishes: Saskatoon Pie
• Classic Canadian Dishes: Cod au Gratin
• Dessert in a Bag: The History of Figgy Duff
• Canada’s Forgotten Dessert: The History of Flapper Pie
• Poutine: The History Of The Crave-able Casse-croûte Favourite