Butter Tarts

Total Time: 35 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shortening
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1/3 cup soft butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 cup corn syrup
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 slightly beaten eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 -2 teaspoon vinegar or 1 -2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 dash nutmeg or 1 dash cinnamon (optional) or 1 dash allspice (optional)
• 3/4 cup steamed seedless raisin (optional)

Recipe

• 1 pastry:.
• 2 combine flour and salt in mixing bowl. cut room temperature shortning into flour with pastry blender or two knives until mixture is uniform and shortening resembles large peas.
• 3 beat egg, water and vinegar together to blend. pour all of the liquid evenly over flour mixture. stir with fork until all of mixture is moistened.
• 4 divide dough in half and shape each into a ball. flatten each into a circle. place one circle of dough between 2 pieces of wax paper and roll out until dough is sufficient to use in a 9" pie plate. cut out circles of dough to fit your muffin tins. place into greased muffin tins and shape.
• 5 filling:.
• 6 cream the butter, sugar, corn syrup and salt together, stir in beaten eggs, vanilla, vinegar and spice. (do not use a beater to combine filling ingredients. beating makes mixture too frothy with air.) pour boiling water over raisins and let stand 10 minutes; then drain and dry. filling is sufficient to fill approximately 14-15 medium size tart shells. sprinkle 2 tsps. raisins in the bottom of each shell, and spoon or pour the filling in until shells are 2/3 full. bake at 400°f 10 minutes; reduce heat to 350°f and bake 5-10 minutes longer or until pastry is golden.
• 7 for runny type tarts make shells deep and use the above filling.
• 8 for firmly set tarts use 3/4 cup brown sugar and 3/4 cup corn syrup and have unbaked shells quite shallow.