I should say up front that I'm incredibly lucky that I have a pretty sweet deal in terms of research funding, as I was recently awarded a Wenner-Gren dissertation fieldwork grant for my work on memory and landscape in the Bahamas. But it's probably also not a coincidence that I've flown through several boxes of butter since finding out that I need to be ABD (all but dissertation, ie, done with my proposal, exams and ready to go do the damn thing) in the next like.... 3 months. I also finally split my only remaining pair of jeans last week. Definitely not a coincidence.
But that also means I've made a lot of really delicious food. Not even a humble brag. That's a straight up brag. Let's begin with the pie crust, shall we?
I waver back and forth between acknowledging that I'm good at what I do as an anthropologist, but I'm not even going to play like I don't know how to make a kick-ass pie crust. The recipe comes from a neighbor who was an amazing cook and famous for her birthday desserts. After she passed away when I was in high school, my mom compiled a bunch of her best and most liked recipes into a cookbook. (She got the recipe from somewhere else, which I'll eventually look up so I give proper citation.) So I've been following this recipe for the past 10 years, until recently when I started binge watching The Mind of a Chef (season 2) on Netflix last month, which altered my technique. The drive to smash flour into butter, however, comes from a desperate-starving-and-procrastinating-graduate-student place. The collision of three very important variables.
Pie crust
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter (very cold)
6 tablespoons very cold water (or as much as needed)
Cut the cold butter into large pieces and drop into the flour and salt mixture. With your hands, press the flour into the butter until it starts to clump small loose balls/globs. Add one tablespoon of water at a time and mix with your hand until the dough starts to form into a loose ball. Use only as much water as necessary- you don't want the dough to be wet. And ideally, you'll still see small pieces of butter in the ball of dough. Divide the dough into two (for a top and bottom crust). Roll out into a crust, or refrigerate while you prep the rest of your delicious pie fillings.
So after making 2 apple pies, peach hand pies, and a 'rustic apple tart/galette/thing' in the past few weeks, Evan suggested making butter tarts. How excellent. Just embrace the butter, shall we? Oh yes, and embrace it, we did.
So these are Canadian. And delicious. And buttery and sweet and they don't even have maple syrup in them. Impressive, eh? In the spirit of true cross-border cooperation, I made the pie crust. The first time I made apple pie a few weeks ago, Evan told me it was his first ever American apple pie (which I guess is due to the butter, rather than shortening on the other side of the border). Evan made the filling, using this recipe.
Butter tarts
1/2 cup raisins, rehydrated in hot water 30 mins
1/4 cp soft butter
1/4 cp brown sugar
pinch salt
1/2 cp dark corn syrup
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
pie crust of your choosing (cough, mine)
Mix butter, sugar, salt and syrup until the sugar dissolves. Then add the egg and vanilla. Drain the raisins and divide between the tart shells (pie crust already pressed into the muffin tin). Pour butter mixture into each shell. Bake at 400, about 20 mins.
I asked if these tasted like Canada. Evan said that when you lick the ground there, it tastes like butter tarts. Which I can only assume was the truth.
Anyways, these are really good and you should make some soon and then maybe order some new jeans because, well, butter tarts.
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