butter tart – Michael Eats

Tasty Pastries at Ba Noi

Published on November 7, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 806 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: https://ba-noi.myshopify.com/

Ba Noi is a delightful bakery on Bloor that specializes in sourdough, along with a handful of tasty treats.

They’re also very, very popular. When I showed up on a Saturday afternoon, they were sold out of everything outside of chocolate chip cookies and butter tarts. That was unfortunate, but certainly, there are worse things to be forced to order at a bakery. I tried both, and they were each extremely tasty. I’ll definitely have to come back to try the sourdough.

The cookie was the highlight. It helped that it was extremely fresh (arguably too fresh, but who can say no to a warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie?), but this was a superlative cookie, with great quality chocolate and a nice depth of flavour. I find a lot of chocolate chip cookies can be one-note sweet, but that definitely wasn’t the case here.

The butter tart was interesting; it was kind of like a hybrid between a standard butter tart and a Portuguese custard tart, with a flaky crust and a filling that was less sweet and more custardy than the norm. It was absolutely delicious, though the crust was a bit soggy despite it still being warm from the oven when it was served to me (the woman behind the counter advised that it might be too fresh to sample immediately; I waited about an hour to eat it. It’s possible it steamed in the bag?).

Delicious Butter Tarts at Circles and Squares

Published on August 23, 2024August 23, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 197 Bartley Drive, North York
Website: https://www.circlesandsquares.ca/

After hearing that Circles and Squares had been awarded first prize at Ontario’s Best Butter Tart Festival last year, my first thought was — wait, there’s a butter tart festival? My second thought was that I’ve gotta try those tarts.

Circles and Squares actually won two awards: first place in the best traditional butter tart category, and second place in the best “wild-style” butter tart category (for their Snickers butter tart, which features chocolate and peanut butter).

I tried the traditional butter tart both with and without pecans, the Snickers butter tart, and the double chocolate butter tart.

They were all very good, but the traditional ones were the clear winners. I can see why they won first place — they’re gooey but not too gooey, the flavour is rich and sweet without being cloying, and the crust is fantastic. It’s a top notch butter tart.

The other two were tasty, but all the stuff took away from their butter tartiness. They tasted more like little chocolate pies that were slightly too sweet. They were still delicious, mind you, but they couldn’t help but be a bit disappointing next to the amazing traditional tarts.

A Delicious Butter Tart at Kate’s Town Talk Bakery

Published on September 25, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 206C Queen Street South, Streetsville
Website: https://www.katestowntalk.ca/

It’s always a good sign when a bakery puts one of their pastries in a paper bag and it becomes translucent with buttery goodness. If the paper bag looks pristine? Sorry, that pastry probably sucks. I don’t make the rules.

Though they have an assortment of sweet and savoury pastries, the specialty at Kate’s Town Talk Bakery is clearly the butter tart, which you can get with pecans, raisins, raspberry Nutella, or on its own.

I got the pecan variety, and oh man, it’s good. The sign outside says that the butter tarts here “rival the best you’ve ever tasted,” and you know what? They’re not wrong. I wish the filling were a bit gooier, but other than that it’s basically butter tart perfection: the crust is perfectly flaky, the filling has a great toffee-like flavour, and it’s got those great crispy caramelized edges that are pretty much irresistible.

I’m not sure that it’s the best best butter tart that I’ve ever had, but it’s right up there, that’s for sure.

Pumpkin Butter Tarts at La Casa Dolce

Published on October 2, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 755 Queensway East, Mississauga
Website: https://lacasadolce.ca/

My first time hearing about La Casa Dolce, an Italian bakery in Mississauga that specializes in desserts, was when I recently saw a photo of the Pumpkin Butter Tart on Instagram.

Obviously, I felt an immediate and overwhelming urge to eat it ASAP. Why? Look at it, that’s why.

Butter tarts are delicious. Pumpkin pies are delicious. Surely when you cram the two desserts together, you must end up with something magical. Right…?

Well, maybe not.

It’s certainly not bad; it’s one of those things that would be very difficult to completely mess up. But the one-note sweet butter tart is nothing special, and it completely overwhelms the comparatively subtle pumpkin pie filling.

The crust is the weakest part — it’s soft, doughy, and bland. The tart is mostly inoffensively tasty, but that crust does its best to bring the whole thing down. It definitely makes me wary to go back and try some of La Casa Dolce’s other baked goods.

Oh, and that stuff on top that looks like cream? It’s actually Cool Whip or something similar. It’s not great.

Delicious Butter Tarts at Abbey’s Bakehouse

Published on June 17, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 100 City Centre Drive, Mississauga (inside Square One)
Website: http://www.sircorp.com/abbeys-bakehouse/

I love butter tarts, but they’re one of those things that I’m sometimes wary to order; when they’re tasty they’re very tasty, but they can easily be throat-burningly sweet.

But I had specifically heard that the tarts at Abbey’s are quite good, so it seemed like a safe enough bet.

They’re not just good. They’re great. I’m not sure if they’re quite on the level of the Maids’ Cottage in Newmarket, which serves my favourite butter tarts in the GTA, but they’re clearly way above average.

The filling is sweet but not too sweet, with a rich caramelized flavour and a nice gooey consistency. The crust is great too — it’s buttery and shortbready, and compliments the sweet filling perfectly.

The crust-to-filling ratio is also on point. This can easily trip up a lesser butter tart, but here the balance is just right — there’s enough crust to offset the sweet filling, but not so much that it dominates. It’s delicious.