Butter tarts

Butter tart

A pecan butter tart
Type	Pastry
Place of origin	Canada
Main ingredients	Pastry shell, butter, sugar, syrup, eggs, raisins
Variations	Substitution of walnuts or pecans for raisins
Food energy (per serving)	580 kcal (2428 kJ)

A butter tart is a type of small pastry tart highly regarded in Canadian cuisine and considered one of Canada's quintessential desserts. The tart consists of butter, sugar, syrup, and egg filled into a flaky pastry and baked until the filling is semi-solid with a crunchy top. The butter tart should not be confused with butter pie (a savoury pie from the Preston area of Lancashire, England) or with bread and butter pudding.

Recipes for the butter tart vary according to the families baking them. Because of this, the appearance and physical characteristics of the butter tart – the firmness of its pastry, or the consistency of its filling – also vary.

Traditionally, the English Canadian tart consists of butter, sugar, and eggs in a pastry shell, similar to the French-Canadian sugar pie, or the base of the U.S. pecan pie without the nut topping. The butter tart is different from pecan pie in that it has a "runnier" filling due to the omission of corn starch. Often raisins, walnuts or pecans are added to the traditional butter tart. However purists contend that such additions should not be allowed.

More exotic flavours are also produced by some bakers. Examples such as maple bacon, pumpkin, chili and salted caramel cardamom flavours have been made for competitions.

Butter tarts were common in pioneer Canadian cooking, and they remain a characteristic pastry of Canada, considered one of only a few recipes of genuinely Canadian origin. It is primarily eaten and associated with the English-speaking provinces of Canada.