Butter Tart Pie

And so it begins!  This is the start of what will be a lot of Christmas baking.  I am notorious for starting my Christmas shenanigans on November 1st, and this year hasn't been the exception.

I am going to be doing a Christmas Series on my blog of each of my family members favourite holiday desserts.  This first one is in honour of my Dad and his love of butter tarts.  I decided to do them a little different this time and transform them into a pie!  We typically use the frozen tart shells for this as well, but I decided to go all out and make the pastry.

I am so excited for Christmas!  I bought a new tree (it's white!) and put it up, now all I have to do is dig out the box that has the lights in it!

I got the recipe for the pastry from a vlog by one of my favourite beauty gurus.  It is her mom's recipe and it has been in their family for many years.  It is really delicious, and easy.  It rolls out very nicely.  Here is a link to the video:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tolGy2qzRE


Ingredients:

Pastry:

2 cups White Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Sugar
2/3 cups, plus 2 tablespoons of Crisco
1/4 cup of Cold Water

Butter Tart Filling:

1 1/2 Cups Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Raisins
3 Eggs
3 TB Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare a pie dish by greasing and flouring it.

2.   Combine flour, salt and sugar in a bowl.  Cut in the Crisco and use a pastry blender or a fork to incorporate it until the shortening is pea-sized.

3.  Add the cold water and mix with the fork, and your hands, until you can form a ball with the pastry.

4.  Roll the pastry out on a cutting board.  The best way to do this is to roll it between two pieces of saran wrap.  This will keep it from sticking to the board, and the rolling pin.  It also makes it easy to flip into a pie dish.  This recipe will make two crusts, so either two bottom crusts, or one pie that has a top and bottom crust.  I froze half of my pastry and used it later.

5.  Once your pastry crust is placed in the dish, sprinkle 1/2 cup of raisins in the bottom.

6.  In an electric mixer, add the brown sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and vanilla for the filling.  Beat well, for a minimum of 2 minutes.

7.  Pour the filling over the raisins and bake for 30 to 40 minutes.  Your pie is finished cooking when it jiggles only slightly.  I know this is pretty technical, lol.  The filling will set a bit more once it is cool, but if you notice that your pie is jiggling quite a bit it likely needs to be cooked for longer.  If you notice the crust or the top of the pie getting too brown, place a piece of foil over top, folding the foil to create a tent.  Spray the foil so it does not stick to the top of the pie.

Tiny Star Pie did not survive long after baking, it was delicious!

8.  Make sure you are sitting down when you eat this, it really is that good.

I like the shattered effect you get on top when you cut it!