Ask ten Ontarians how a butter tart should be built and you will get twelve opinions, which is exactly why we love it.
Why is the butter tart such a big deal?
CBC puts it plainly: if one dessert is widely touted as quintessentially Canadian, it is probably the butter tart. Part of the charm is how personal it is. Several bakers CBC spoke with at a 2025 festival said their tarts were made from family recipes, which tells you something about how the tart travels from kitchen to kitchen.
That is also why a butter tart tasting makes such a good outing. You are not just comparing sugar and butter, you are comparing households.
Where does the butter tart come from?
Nobody agrees, and that is half the fun. CBC reports that the first published recipe describing the butter tart as we know it appeared in 1900 in The Women’s Auxiliary of the Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook in Ontario.
CBC adds that many believe the origins are far older. It reports the Canadian Encyclopedia’s view that butter tarts are a result of the filles du roi, young French women sent to Quebec in the 17th century, and says it is thought they adapted a version of French sugar pie. A cookbook author cited by CBC disagrees and points to Scottish roots, saying butter tarts were originally known as border tarts. A third voice in the CBC piece, the author of a bibliography of Canadian cookbooks, believes ordinary people in rural Ontario invented the tart themselves.
We enjoy all three stories. Our pick is to hold them lightly and keep eating.
Runny or firm: which side are you on?
This is the great divide. Butter tart fans tend to have their own preference on how runny or firm the filling should be, and on whether raisins belong. CBC’s festival coverage in 2025 notes that the question is liable to start a lively debate.
Here is our opinion, and it is only that. If you like a tart that stays in the pastry when you bite it, you are a firm person. If you like a filling that slumps a little and begs for a napkin, you are a runny person. A tasting at home is the quickest way to find out which one you are.
A butter tart bitten open on parchment, so the filling can make its case.Alex Lozupone / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
How are bakers reinventing the tart?
CBC reported in 2019 that at butter tart festivals across the country there are gluten-free, pumpkin cheesecake, chai spiced, coconut and even Caesar cocktail versions, among others. The same piece notes that rural Ontario is home to two popular butter tart tours, one in Wellington County and one in Kawartha Northumberland. If you ever want to take the tart on a road trip, those tours are a good place to start your research.
Where can you try an Ontario champion in Toronto?
A strong Toronto butter tart credential sits in Etobicoke. The Town of Midland’s winners page says the 2024 Ontario’s Best Butter Tart award went to The Pie Commission, of Etobicoke, for its Pecan Butter Tart. The same page lists the bakery’s Banoffee Butter Tart in third place in the professional wild style category in 2025.
The Pie Commission describes its pie shop as being in the heart of Etobicoke. The bakery says its in-store range includes butter tarts, dessert pies, bake-at-home scones and fresh hand-cut fries, among other things.
On its own site, the bakery says it makes its pies by hand in small batches and that its all-butter pastry is the point. That is good news for a tart, where the pastry is half the experience.
If you cannot make it west, the bakery lists a Pecan Butter Tart six-pack on its frozen home delivery menu and notes the Best in Show award next to it. It says it delivers from Oakville to Scarborough and north to Highway 7. Our pick is to try the pecan tart first, since it is the one tied to the title, and see whether you are a runny person or a firm person. Check their site for ordering details.
How do you run your own tart-off?
It is easy, and it is a good excuse to invite people over. Buy a few tarts from different bakeries, set them on a board and cut each one in half. Judge the pastry first, then the filling, then the edge where the sugar caramelizes. Decide your own rules about raisins and pecans before anyone arrives so the debate stays friendly.
A few house rules help. Taste at room temperature. Sip water between tarts so each one gets a fair hearing. Keep a pencil handy and write down what you notice about texture, since that is where the runny versus firm question gets settled. Invite at least one person who loves raisins and one who does not, and let them make their cases. Somebody always changes their mind.
When you are done, you will have a ranking that is entirely yours. That is the best kind of food list.
A tray of small butter tarts, the raw material for a tart-off.Didriks / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0
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