Grandma's Butter Tarts

Butter tarts! These... oh my... how do I describe them. Rustic, warm-your-heart, filled with love and butter-y goodies! That's one way of putting them. My Dad says they are simply the best. Probably because it's his mom's recipe. She taught my mom how to make them, and I kinda just tried them on my own yesterday. It's a very, VERY flaky crust. Probably because there is a pound of lard in there... but that's because they make like 1,000,000 tarts! Don't be intimidated! Just tryyyy to only eat 3. Or 4. It's hard, okay? Of course I only needed a dozen so I saved the rest of the dough for my pie. The filling is perfect in my opinion. A lot of butter tarts that I've tried are just too sweet. But these ones have a warm flavour that is complimented by nuts and raisins, with a hint of coconut. So! You can either wait until Christmas like I have to, OR! Make them today!

Grandma's Butter Tarts
Makes about 4 dozen

Pastry
6 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 pound lard
1 egg beaten, poured into a liquid measure. Add 2 tablespoons white vinegar and fill up to the 8 ounce (1 cup line) with cold water.

Filling
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup butter
4 teaspoons vanilla
8 tablespoons milk (1/2 cup)
4 cups brown sugar
2 cups flaked coconut
2 cups raisins
2 cups chopped walnuts.

Pastry

In a large bowl mix the flour and the salt. Cut up the lard into smaller pieces and put in the bowl. Using either a pastry cutter or your hands, cut the lard until it resembles coarse oatmeal. There can be bigger pieces, it just makes the crust more flaky. Add the liquid measure ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined. Knead in the bowl to get any dry pieces, and knead about 5-10 times on a floured surface. But be gentle, you don't want to over work the dough.

Now roll out the dough about 1/8 inch thick. Using a round cup or cookie cutter, cut the dough big enough so it will fit into a muffin tin, with the sides going up to the top. Place in the tin until the filling is finished. No need to refrigerate.

Filling

Mix together all the ingredients in a large bowl. Simple as that. Fill the pastry cups almost to the top (to the top in my case) and bake in an oven pre heated to 375• for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. The dough might look kinda like wet or moist; I dunno why! But they are done when they are golden!

Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then carefully move to a wire rack. They are very delicate! Cool completely.

Enjoy these fabulously flaky yummy in my tummy pastry!