Butter Tarts with Almonds

Total time:  Approximately 1 hour.

1 cup flour *
3/4 cup almonds, chopped
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (one stick), softened* + 1 Tbsp butter, melted
6 Tbsp cream cheese, softened*
1 egg
2 Tbsp heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of allspice

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream together cream cheese and 1/2 cup butter. Add flour to make a dough. Press pastry into the bottoms and sides of a tassie pan (24 tassie size) or muffin tin (8-12 muffin size).

Mix together remaining ingredients. Spoon 1 tsp to 1 Tbsp of filling into each tart for tassie pan or 2-3 Tbsp of filling into each muffin cup.

Bake 20-35 minutes. Long range, I know; but what you’re looking for is for the pastry to turn golden and/or the filling to puff up. Tassie pans are typically 20-25 minutes. Muffin pans are 30-35 minutes. You definitely want to watch after you round the mark to make sure the golden doesn’t turn brown (it happens fast, apparently!).

Inside the Butter Tart

* Use these items to make your own dough, or use store bought pastry shells, or use your favorite pie crust/pastry dough.

Canadian butter tarts are made like American pecan pies. You want for your gelatinous filling to settle at the bottom and for any nuts or filling to “float” to the top and create a crisp top.

I used my muffin tin, and I got 10 butter tarts. They were perfectly done at 25 minutes on 350. A toothpick came out clean.

It’s embarrassing how quickly these were devoured, so I’m just not going to tell you how many are left.