There are a few things that are virtually inseperable in my mind. One of these inseperables are my grandmother's butter tarts *made from scratch* and the Pètes de Soeurs that naturally follow. Since I've been baking, I've taken an interest in the recipes that once filled my wee heart with gladness as a child. One of the biggees was the buttertart recipe. My grandmother would use one raw egg in the filling --I would marvel at her ability to fold it in without cooking it--something I inevitably did for a very long time because I was too impatient to let it cool down. Now I am the one baking them: cutting the shortening into the flour, chilling it for a while before rolling it out on the table; melting the butter and brown sugar together until the crystals are saturated and I can add the condensed milk. It's become a bit of a thing for me, baking these tarts. My mom, lawd love her, has taken to buying store bought pastry cups and I can't get over why. It's like losing the language of kin when you casually toss tradition aside. And that language is delicious.
So she handed me, in her fine cursive, her "recipe nouveau" and, way at the bottom, Grandma's.
Grandma's Butter Tarts
1/3 C butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp condensed cream
(Eagle Brand is lovely and I always let it slop over the sides because it's so GD good)
1 egg beaten
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (please splurge on the real)
Fill pastry shells and bake at 375' for twenty minutes
When the brown sugar and butter are nicely together in sin, remove the pot from the stove to cool. This is important or else you'll have cooked egg to pick out.
Now to Les Pètes de Soeurs.
These, directly translated, are Nun's Farts, a deliciously sacriligious and festive cookie that I make out of the remainder of the pastry. Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon and cover the rolled out pastry. Roll it back up like a tube and cut it into cookies.
Voilà. A fecking awesome combination of tradition and taste.
And will you check out those plates I thrifted? Johnson Bros. white pine and pincone motif. I know! I have the matching bowls and I love love them.
Happy Baking.
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