Butter Tart Bars

Butter Tart bars are almost as easy as my homemade butter tarts. Almost. You do have to make a crust for these, but it is incredibly simple to whip up. These come from the 150 Delicious Squares Book, of which I have two copies to give away this week! Right in time for holiday baking. I will put up another post where everyone can comment in order to win a copy.

Ingredients

Bottom Layer

1/2 cup of margarine or butter

1/3 cup of brown sugar

1 1/4 cups of flour

Top Layer

2 large eggs

1 cup of brown sugar

1 tsp flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup of margarine or butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups  of raisins

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Kick the tires and light the fires to 350 degrees.

Combine the first three ingredients in a bowl until crumbly.

Press the mixture into an ungreased 9×9  pan and pop into the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes, until browned.

Combine your brown sugar and your eggs together well.

Add in the rest of your ingredients. I used pecans in mine, you can also use walnuts. I am more of a butter tart purist and to make these true Canadian style, you would not add nuts. My prized recipe for butter tarts comes from a 1940′s cookbook, and there are no nuts.

However. Pecans make this more like pecan pie squares. Hot dang, that is not a bad thing!

Your crust should be ready and removed. See the little brown spots? That’s brown sugar I managed to not mix in. Yup. I am ready to write my cookbook! How Not To Cook, by The Kitchen Magpie. Or, Don’t Cook Like Me.  Or Whatever Were You Thinking, Using My Recipes. Or best yet, Fail Cooking 101 by the Kitchen Magpie.  I am pretty sure I see a best seller in the works.

Pour the mixture onto the crust.

Bake at 350 degrees until beautifully browned, about 18-20 minutes.

And on a side note, these would probably be just as great with only raisins, for those of you with nut allergies. Truly a buttertart bar then!